


Close To You

by MissSugarPink



Category: Undertale
Genre: Chara Has Issues, Eventual Smut, Frisk Needs A Hug, Multi, Nonbinary Chara and Frisk, Original Character(s), Past Abuse, Reader Is Not Frisk, Slow Burn, Stuff will be added to tags as the story progresses, Timeline Shenanigans, reader is female
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2018-07-15 14:32:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7226329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissSugarPink/pseuds/MissSugarPink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You work in a bookstore near Mt. Ebott. Your life thus far has been remarkably normal (so normal, in fact, that it's hardly worth mentioning, really). You're just a girl who is a little too curious about things sometimes, who might be in need of a friendship beyond base level coworkers, and oh yeah.</p><p>You're a girl who might be falling in love with a pun loving skeleton.</p><p>You might not be so 'normal' anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Which Grocery Shopping Takes Longer Than Usual

The air was cool. Not cold, thankfully, but not hot either. It had been a strangely warm fall so far, but now that it was October, it had started to cool down. Still, you were used to the warmth. That was the reason you wore one of your old t-shirts, you told yourself, and not because you forgot to do laundry again. That was totally the reason why you made the short trip to the store in too-small jeans and a worn out, faded skull shirt with the words “bad to the bone” printed around it. Why did you even buy this thing? There had to be a reason you had this (oh yeah, you liked puns too much, that was why).

Armed with your shopping bag and a mental reminder to do the laundry when you got home, you made your way to the store. You didn't need much in your apartment, but cold pizza only worked as dinner for so long. You had to restock on crackers anyways, so a trip to the store was probably overdue. You reviewed what you needed in your head. Thankfully, not much to remember. You quickly let the shopping list fade from your mind and slowly began to take in the people walking around you. People, and monsters.

 

Yeah. That was still taking some getting used to. 

 

The monsters had only been there for about a year now. The integration process had been fast enough, but you hardly saw monsters around - only really on TV and out here on the streets. There had been an influx of monster customers at the bookstore where you worked, right after they came to the surface, but that had died down pretty fast. It seemed like they mostly kept to themselves. You kinda liked it better that way. You had no problems with monsters, but the prospect of some of them did scare you. That small childish part of you couldn't help but wonder if all those monsters under the bed were actually real. 

Still, you hadn't seen any really scary monsters yet. So far, the only ones you’d seen were more like furry humans - like bunnies with arms and legs. The one ice cream vendor down the street was pretty cool, actually. 

It hit you that he was a blue bunny, and he sold ice cream, just like the brand Blue Bunny. Huh. What a funny coincidence.

 

What was it you had been thinking about?

 

Oh right, scary monsters. You had yet to see anything really horrifying or grotesque. Somehow, you doubted you would see anyone really scary. You lived in a relatively quiet town. Scary stuff didn't just happen.

You walked into the store, your thoughts now centering back on shopping. You quickly started making your rounds, pacing this way and that through the store. It was pretty empty and fairly quiet. You could just make out the hum of the freezers over the soft Halloween music playing, and gentle talking between cashiers and customers. You smiled. What a peacefu-

 

THUMP.

 

You jumped and dropped your shopping bag as you heard someone trip and fall behind you. You turned and saw a small monster wearing a striped shirt, groaning on the floor next to their own bag. “Oh! Are you um… Okay?”

“Oof,” was the only response. They squirmed around, trying to get up.

“Uh… Here, lemmie help you up.” You went to grab their hand to help them stand, but promptly discovered that they didn't have arms. Shrugging, you grabbed them by the back of their shirt and straightened them up.

The monster shook their head, laughing. You guessed they were a child by how small they were, or maybe this type of monster came in this size? They looked sorta like a lizard, or maybe a dinosaur, a bit like that one monster you’d seen on TV that scientists everywhere kept talking about. “Oof. Woops! Guess I oughta be more careful.” 

Their words pulled you back out of your thoughts. “I’ll say!” You smiled softly, dusting them off. “You alright? You kinda just face planted on tile.”

“Oh, yeah, happens all the time!” You understood - clumsy is as clumsy does, after all. The child shook themselves off, the sleeves on their shirt flapping too and froh. “Thanks for helping me up, miss!”

“Eh, don't mention it.”

The monster kid put their tail through the loops of their bags. “Alright, then I won't mention it!” Without another word, the child scrambled off to the next aisle. 

You stared blankly at the space where they just were. “That's not quite what I…” You shook your head and smiled, not sure what quite you had meant to say. You supposed it didn’t matter. “Ah, whatever.” You reached down to retrieve your bag, only to grasp empty space.

…

Something clicked in your brain.

“Hey! Wait! You have my bag!” You started off at a fast pace after the kid. They probably didn't mean to, it was just a mix up, they’d grabbed your bag along with their own. Where had they gone to in such a hurry? You rounded the corner and-

 

THWUMP.

 

You’re met face first with an overly soft hoodie jacket. “wha-” a startled voice said, a shifty tenor with a soft rumble to it.

“O-Oh, sorry sir, I-” You backed up enough to see who you ran into.

Oh. 

There’s a lot of monsters out today.

The skeleton grinned at you, tilting his chin up softly. “forgeddaboudit,” he said without a breath, shoving his gloved hands into the pockets of his hoodie. “no harm, no foul kid.”

You couldn’t stop staring at him for some reason. He was… different. New. Most every other monster you’d seen resembled an animal or something, but this one took you by surprise. You’d only seen skeletons in pictures and in biology on a stand thing. Now one was right there, in the flesh! Er, bone. You couldn't help but think up a thousand questions while just standing there. Could he smell without a nose? How? He had pupils, but how did those work? Did he eat? Did it go through his body or just fall through his jaw?

“er… kid?”

You jumped slightly out of your thoughts and realized you’d just been staring at him blankly for about a minute. _Ugh, pull yourself out of your own world,_ you thought to yourself before promptly stuttering out an apology. “Oh, sorry! I-I was trying to find this one kid, they accidently took my bag. I wasn't really watching where I was going…”

He raised a brow - did he have eyebrows? Maybe it was an eye ridge or something? How was bone so versatile? “small kid? striped shirt, no arms?”

“Yeah!”

“come on, think i saw ‘em over there.” He turned and walked down the aisle. You frowned lightly and followed him, taking him in as you did. Was… Was he wearing slippers? With socks? In the store?

Monsters were weird. 

“hey, kid!” You looked up from his shoes to see the monster kid looking back at the two of you.

“Oh, yo! What’s up, Sans?”

The skeleton - Sans, you guessed - chuckled. “just the ceiling, kid.” The small monster laughed. You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at the semi-familiar joke. Sans pulled his hand out of his pocket, pointing to the two bags on the child’s tail. “say… what’s that you got there?”

They looked at their tail and quickly gasped. “Yo! This one isn't mine…” They looked back at you. “Oh! Hey, is this yours?” You nodded, smiling. “Sorry, miss! I musta grabbed yours too by mistake.” They walked up and turned around, lifting their tail up. “Here you go!”

You grabbed your bag and slung it around your shoulder. “Thanks, uh… What’s your name?” 

“Oh, my name’s Kid!” They smiled wide. “Anyway, I should probably finish shopping. My parents are gonna be worried about me. See ya!” They ran off in the other direction, tripping once and falling before getting up again in a hurry.

You shook your head. You decided not to focus on the fact that the kid’s name was actually ‘Kid’. Maybe it was a nickname or something, you weren’t one to judge. “They really should be more careful,” you said instead. You turned to Sans, who was watching you with a bemused smile. “Thanks for helping me.”

“heh. any time.” He held out his hand. “put ‘er there, pal.”

You smiled and took his hand - he seemed pleased that you didn't do anything weird because the hand happened to be, y'know, skeletal. “It was nice to me-”

PPPFFFBBTBFBTffft……...

You tilted your head and pulled your hand back, revealing a deflated whoopee cushion. “I…” You giggled softly. “What?”

Sans laughed at your confused expression. “whoopee cushion in the hand trick. never fails.” For some reason, his expression just made you laugh too. He seemed to enjoy your laughing. He put his hands back in his pockets, nodding towards you. “gotta say, i love the shirt.”

You looked down and remembered the whole forgot-to-do-the-laundry thing. Shit. “Uh, yeah.” You grimaced at the pun on it. Hopefully that wasn't offensive or anything. “Sorry, dumb joke tee.” God, could you do anything but fuck up today? You were sure you were blushing.

“you kiddin’? that one’s great!” He chuckled, his grin wide. He looked pretty happy.

You smiled awkwardly, laughing uneasily. “I sorta need to do the laundry.” At least he seemed chill about it. 

“heh. i'm lucky enough to have a roommate who does my laundry. speaking of which, he’s probably in the pasta aisle.” Sans started to walk off. For some reason, you followed him. It was probably because you’d never seen a skeleton before, and you could never resist natural curiosity anyways. This was the impulsive part of you that chases after strays on the street when you should be heading home. Sigh.

He didn't seem to mind, thankfully. In fact, he just kept talking to you. “papyrus is kinda a pasta fanatic. and a human fanatic. he’d be thrilled to meet you.”

“It’d be cool to meet him too, I guess.” You shrugged, smiling softly. Then you faltered as you realized just how on the fence about meeting this monster’s roommate you had just sounded. Ugh, gah, you hoped he didn’t think you were being racist or something? “I'm sorry if I seem out of it or anything, I’m just… not great with people all the time.” More like you get sidetracked into your own line of thinking with little or no focus on what’s going on right in front of you.

“it’s fine, kid. we’re all a little zoned out now and then.” He grinned. “besides. not many humans talk to us. it’s cool to meet one who’s so willing to chat - even if you feel awkward about it.” He glanced back at you and winked. “don’t worry ‘bout it, kid.” You smiled back at him.

He turned the corner. You saw a tall skeleton standing next to the spaghetti boxes, a frown on his face. Wait, how did a skeleton frown? It looked like his eyebrows (er, eye-ridges) were lowered and furrowed. He looked contemplative. “heya, paps.” Sans joined who you assumed to be his relative. Maybe a brother?

“HMM? OH, THERE YOU ARE, SANS!” Papyrus’s voice was just a bit deeper than Sans’s - although, it was a lot louder, and it cracked in many places, making it seem almost higher paradoxically. Weird. How did they even speak without vocal chords, you wondered. “I'VE BEEN HAVING TROUBLE DECIDING ON A PASTA, BROTHER! THERE ARE SO MANY TYPES OF NOODLES HERE!"

Seems like your assumption was right, they were brothers. You smiled. “Wheat noodles are pretty healthy for you, and they don’t taste too bad.”

Papyrus glanced at you in hardly masked surprise. “OH! HELLO, HUMAN!” He smiled. “WHEAT, YOU SAY? HMM...”

“i think these’ll work best, bro,” Sans said, picking a random box from the shelf. Papyrus reached to grab another box, but Sans stopped him. “let’s not buy too much. gotta save up some money.”

“ALL TOO TRUE, SANS!” Papyrus tilted his head, smiling very lightly. “I'M SURPRISED. YOU NEVER WORRIED ABOUT MONEY UNDERGROUND.” Papyrus let his hand drop.

“yeah, well, worrying about our gold down there never really made much _cents_.”

You couldn't help but laugh at his pun. You just managed to hold back probably the most undignified snort of your life. Thank God. Papyrus groaned, putting his face in his hand. “SAAAAANS! A HUMAN IS WATCHING! THEY'RE GOING TO RECEIVE A BAD IMPRESSION OF US IF YOU CONTINUE TO SPOUT YOUR RIDICULOUS WORDPLAY ANTICS!" 

“heheh. sorry, papyrus. i just couldn't let such a golden opportunity pass.”

You kept laughing, smiling wide, falling into a fit of giggles quickly. God, these were awful. Somehow, that just made them better. You had always been fond of a good joke or pun, but bad jokes and puns were just 10 times better.

Too bad nothing lasts forever. The phone in your pocket buzzed. You grabbed it (after jumping a good foot in the air, you hated feeling your phone vibrate) and checked the alert.

_Don't forget - work at 4! :(_

You groaned. It was already 2. Looks like laundry would have to wait awhile. Judging from that frowny, past you knew it was going to be a pain in the ass work week. You glanced up at the two brothers. “It was nice to meet you two, but I should get going. I've got work soonish.”

Papyrus smiled at you - it was like all the anger at his brother’s bad puns had melted in an instant. Part of you wondered if he was even angry in the first place. “IT WAS NICE TO MEET YOU TOO! I APOLOGIZE PROFUSELY, HUMAN, I DID NOT PROPERLY INTRODUCE MYSELF!” He reached out his hand, which uh... had a boxing glove on it. Okay. “I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, THE OFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL MASCOT FOR THE MONSTERS!”

Er… You decided not to ask. You shook his hand and gave him your name. Both Sans and Papyrus seemed happy with your response - Sans smiled even brighter when you shook Papyrus's hand. You didn’t bother to wonder why; you had work on the mind. You waved goodbye to them before heading to the cash register. You bought your items and headed for home, lost in thought as always.

That was probably the most monsters you had seen in one place since the first few days of integration. Not only that, but two of them weren't just animals (animal _like_ , you remind yourself _again_ ) - they were skeletons! Your mind was buzzing with questions about them. How did they even move? It didn't look like they had joints of anything. 

But you couldn't just think about skeletons all day. You quickly started home, which thankfully wasn't far away. You wondered, briefly, if you would ever see those skeletons again. After all, you weren't the most sociable of people. Maybe they would show up at the bookstore at some point? 

You hoped so.


	2. In Which Retail Sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A boring day at work and another boring day at home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, skeletons will return next chapter~

“Hey!”

You jumped as Bill called out, followed by him shouting your name. Oh joy. The manager. You turned around, peeking your head out of the aisle, cradling some trashy teenage romance novels in your arms. “Yep?”

Bill walked up, crossing his arms. His face was smooth, cocky, and too relaxed for an employee’s face to be. Though, that’s what happens when you’re manager. His dumb confidence and sterling blue eyes would have been attractive, if he wasn’t a total jerk. “I’m going to need you to come in tomorrow night.”

You frowned, thinking. Tomorrow night? That was a Friday. There wouldn’t normally be any problem with that… But you knew Bill. You sighed. “Just how late are we talking?”

“Very late. You’d be closing up.”

“Closing hours? You mean midnight.”

“Well, that's when we close,” he said with a cocky little smirk. God damn, you hated your manager. “I know you said you hate closing, honey, but Geoff just called in from the hospital.”

Your eyes widened, the news enough to break you out of your instinctual rebuttal to him calling you ‘honey’. Geoffrey? “What happened? Is he alright??”

Bill rolled his eyes, waving his hand dismissively. “Oh, he’ll be alright. He only broke his ankle, it’ll heal up. But you’re the person whose hours are already lowest that’s not on that shift, so we're calling you in.”

You frowned, worried about Geoff. You hoped he was alright. Geoffrey was a really soft spoken guy, kinda short and really invisible in a lot of regards. That hadn’t stopped him from dying his hair the brightest red he could find, though. You loved Geoff - everyone did. “Alrighty. I'll come in.” Not like you could argue much.

Bill smiled brighter, grinning. “Aww. Knew I could count on you, sweetie.” You could physically feel your eye twitch. You weren’t his honey OR his sweetie, so why did he keep calling you that? Gross. He turned, waving bye. “Just don't forget - 4 til closing.”

“Yep.” You watched him go, scowling as soon as he was out of sight. “Not like I’m gonna forget,” you muttered, barely biting back the contempt in your voice. Goddamn, he was annoying. He was condescending, and it felt like he was always trying to hit on you. Ew.

Still, at least you’ll be getting more hours - that meant more money. You felt bad about Geoffrey, sure, but you did need the money. All you got was 8 bucks an hour. Sure, you guessed that while 8 bucks an hour sucked, it still managed to pay the bills. And hey - cold showers and early bedtimes meant less spent. You were getting pretty good at living cheap.

The shitty apartment and parent loans probably helped.

But you would still appreciate a little bit more spending money, especially on some more books. You loved them. Guess that’s why you chose to work at a bookstore, huh?

You checked the time. 5:26. About a half hour till you were free for the day. You let out a happy sigh and resumed shelving. You knew that by tomorrow, these would need to be reorganized, but hey. That meant you would still have work to do. Yay for that, you guessed.

 

6 o’clock rolled around pretty uneventfully. You sighed in relief and headed to the back room. Just needed to grab your things and-

“What the fuck do you mean by that?!”

Oh no. Nooo, you were _just_ about to leave! Why does this sort of thing have to happen whenever you try to leave?

“Tessa, you know exactly what I mean.” Ugh, _Bill._ “You’ve been slow to shelve, rude to customers - either you shape up a bit, or I’ll be forced to fire you.” He had on that false chipper voice, the one that grated on your nerves and made you bite your cheek. “Think you can handle being a bit better at your job, honey?”

Yikes. You knew Tessa could be laid back and a bit lazy at times, but she also really needed this job. “Look, jackass, I get what needs to be done, done! Just cause I won't waste my time shuffling around the kids section 50 times doesn't mean I don't work hard.” You winced. Talking like that wasn’t going to help any, though.

“Well, maybe if you actually _touched_ the kids section, we wouldn't be having this conversation.”

“And maybe if you had actually ever picked up a book before, you would be educated enough to read the titles. Maybe then you would even notice that they have been touched and are organized THE WAY THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE!”

You stepped into the room, hoping to be the distraction they needed. You cleared your throat. Both of them jumped and looked at you before backing away from each other. “Sorry, just need to grab my bag.” You pointed at the tan bag on the counter, as though trying to prove your purpose here.

Tessa grabbed it and walked over, handing it to you. “Don't worry, I’m heading out too. My shift ended, and I’d rather not stay in this shit-shack any longer than necessary.” Bill’s eyes narrowed, tensed up, but he surprisingly didn't say anything. 

You took your bag and slung it over your neck and shoulder. “Uh… See you tomorrow, Bill.”

He didn't respond. Thank God for small blessings, right? Together, you and Tessa made your way out. You had your arms crossed and kept a close eye on her. The second you got outside, you turned to her. “Okay, what the hell was that all about?” 

Tessa groaned, rubbing her head under her short hair. “That motherfucker tried to cut my hours again!”

“What? Why? You’ve been doing hard work, and we need everyone on deck with the holidays coming.”

“He just hates me ever since I caught him and his boyfriend in the break room together.” You winced. That had been a sore point between the Tessa and Bill since it happened. Bill had wanted to fire Tessa for a long time now, and since that day, he’d been really gunning for her removal from the store. Tess groaned, rubbing her face. “What I wouldn’t give for a smoke,” she mumbled through her fingers.

“Hey, don’t say that! I thought you quit?”

Tessa sighed. “Yeah, but that doesn’t stop me from jonzin’.” She took a deep breath, smiling back at you. You could tell it was a bit strained, but smiling was Tess’s way of coping with it. “Ah well. Shittastic day. Whatever. I’m gonna go blow it at home with Dragon Age and BBQ chips.” You smiled back. “Did you wanna hang?”

Your smile dropped and your hand squeezed the strap of your purse a little. “Uh… Sorry, Tess. I should really get home. Allie will be wondering where Mama went off to,” you say with an attempt at a smile.

Of course, Tess saw right through it. She rolled her eyes. “Yeah yeah, go home to your little beast. I get it, we all need some alone time.” She sighed. “Just promise me we’re gonna hang soon, alright? You never get out of that apartment of yours.” You chose not to comment. She lifted her hand high. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yep. I’ve got nightshift for Geoff.” You high fived her and grabbed her hand, your form of a goodbye hug - she knew you didn’t like to be touched much. “See you.”

You and Tessa parted ways. You sighed softly as you started walking. Same sort of day as usual, you supposed. You had shelved all day, heard the screaming match between your friend and your boss, and got more hours. At least that last one meant more money, you reminded yourself. Again. Silver linings, right?

The walk home wasn’t long at all. Your entire life was sort of just the square radius of the town you lived in; you never hard to go more than 30 minutes out of your way. That being the case, you had never invested in a car (not that you really had the spare cash for that anyways). You watched cars pass by on the small town roads, smiling to yourself. Your little pseudo-city suited you just fine.

You got to your apartment complex and struggled with the door for a minute. The lock had always been hard to handle. You fiddled with your key for a minute and it finally opened. You walked inside, climbing the stairs quickly to the second floor, careful to lock the door behind you once you finally got inside your own place - which was equally as hard to open. “Miss Allie! I’m home!”

You heard a plaintive meow from the kitchen and stifled a giggle. She always sounded so cute. “Alright, alright, settle down.” You walked into the kitchen and set your bag down on the counter, smiling at the little runt of a cat that paced through your legs when you did. She meowed again and walked over to her food bowl. “I know, you’re hungry. You’re always hungry.” 

You poured her some dry food, being sure to fill up her water bowl while you were at it. As always, she stared at the food for a minute before stalking off to the main room. You smiled. Typical.

You walked down to your room, grabbing your discarded sweats from the floor and changing into them. Your current pair of pants went in the same exact place your sweats did. You contemplated putting them in your laundry basket, but… Eh. Laziness. You grabbed your blanket. Relaxation time.

One bowl of beef ramen and a Dr. Pepper knock off later, you were curled up on the couch, clicking through channels to find something to watch. There didn't seem to be much on.

You hesitated on a news show.

 

“Reports are still coming in from the latest attack,” the reporter was saying. “So far, it appears no fatalities occurred, but one human was beaten and two monsters hospitalized.”

 

Oh no…

 

“The injured human has claimed that his attack was self defense. However, numerous witnesses saw him instigate the attack purposely. As of yet, no charges have been placed on either side.”

 

The report just went on and on. It described the monsters in question who had been hospitalized - you didn't know either of them. You didn't know the human either. You let out a breath you hadn't known you were holding. This sort of stuff was just awful to hear about. As much as others liked to believe, this stuff didn't happen often; a large number of humans liked the monsters, actually.

The issues weren't absent though, you had to admit. First, there were those monster phobic racists who thought the “filthy undergrounders” should go back where they belong. Ugh. Racism would never be dead, you thought miserably. Then, there were those fetishers without restrictions. Apparently, there were a lot of people out there who would like to have sex with an anthropomorphic rabbit. Being attracted to people wasn’t wrong in the slightest, but there’d been a huge spike of sex crimes all over the world since monsters came to the surface. Most of those crimes, per usual, were done by humans. God, couldn’t your race keep it in their pants and keep their hands to themselves for 5 minutes? 

But you thought one of the worst things about it all was how little anyone understood. A lot of people wanted to help monsters (including you) in any way they could. But since so little was known about monsters, relations between human and monster kind had been strained. Some hospitals allowed monster patients, but in the beginning, that had led to a lot of funerals because no one knew how to help them. And the fact that there was a King of Monsters confused a lot of humans; did he outrank the president? Everyone was confused, scared, and that led to a lot of unnecessary things happening. 

You sighed. The small childish part of you that spoke up every now and then wished the world was fair. The much larger part of you that was an adult acknowledged that this was probably just about as fair as the world was going to get. 

A meow next to you drew your thoughts away from the topic. You glanced at Allie, taking her in. A little white kitty with black sock-paws and a spot leading away from her nose. Her green eyes watched you curiously. Before you knew it, she was pawing your lap and curling up next to you, as though sensing you were stressed out. You sighed and absentmindedly petted her. It helped, a tiny bit.

 

You turned your attention back to the news. They were talking about recent protests. You didn’t feel like watching anymore.

 

You shut off the TV and reached over to the nearby table, picking up your happy book. The one that was your favorite of all time, the one that always made you smile with nostalgia. You knew every secret, every word already, but it still managed to enthrall you. At least you had this.

Allie sniffed the book. “You want me to read to you?” She started to purr, headbutting your leg once. Her sign for yes, you imagined. Besides, it was more fun to read with company. “Alright, Allie.” You cleared your throat, putting on your big important book reading voice. “Chapter one… The first thing the boy Garion remembered was the kitchen at Faldor’s farm…”


	3. In Which You Learn There's A Type Of Pasta Called Mafalde

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Retail always sucks, but _tibia_ honest, a certain skeleton's puns and a good friend makes it bearable.

The thought of closing sucked. It always had, but today had been a shitty day. Like, REMARKABLY shitty. 

First off, you slept until 1:30, which you had NOT meant to do. You hate sleeping in so late because you always feel so groggy and then you miss out on half of your day, and before you know it, you have to be at work. Still, you managed to pull yourself out of bed and run to the kitchen, feeding your cat who, thankfully, patiently let you feed her without a peep. At least Allie had sensed your bad day was going to be bad enough without her pretending you never fed her.

After a fast (cold) shower, you’d tried to start your laundry. You put all the clothing in the washer.

And then it wouldn’t start. You’d tried pressing the button again, then opening and closing the door, and finally just punching the top. By the end, all you had accomplished was hurting your hand. And it still didn’t start. You didn’t have time or energy to call someone about it, so you just resolved that you weren’t going to do laundry today. You grabbed a dirty pair of jeans that fit you a bit better than the ones you wore yesterday did, and a black longsleeve that you’re pretty sure was supposed to be a pajama shirt. Whatever, at least you would be warm.

Then you called the hospital to check on Geoff, only to find out that there’d been a water main break outside the hospital. They weren’t accepting visitors today while they did repairs. So you wouldn’t get to check in on your buddy until tomorrow, if you had the time. Sigh. Instead, you tried to tidy up the house a bit. That little voice in the back of your mind followed you the entire way around the house, telling you that there really wasn’t any point to it, it would just get dirty again ( _you never invite people over anyways, so why even bother?_ ). By the time you were done tidying up, everything still looked kinda messy to you, like you’d only moved things around instead of actually cleaned up. It was also 3:30 and you had to get going.

When you got outside to go to work, it was raining. 

“God, could you not do this to me today, please,” you whispered to whatever God was out there. The response was a roll of thunder that made you jump and start to shake. Okay, yeah, fear of thunder, still a thing on your checklist of fears and phobias. Joy. God had a goddamn sense of humor. You ran back into the house to look for your umbrella, only to realize you left it at work again. Goddamn it. You grabbed a jacket. Ugh. Why didn’t it have a hood? Oh well, no time to fret now. You slipped it on, took a deep breath as you stood on the front steps outside, and then you ran.

By the time you got to work, you were shivering, dripping, and miserable. At least you got here in time, you tried to rationalize. You struggled to find the silver lining. You sighed and walked inside. As you did, you saw one silver lining, and it saw you.

“Hey gir- oh my god, you’re _soaked_.” Tessa looked horrified from the cashier’s counter. “You left your umbrella here again, didn’t you?” You nodded mutely. Tessa muttered a cussword under her breath. “Okay, my shift actually isn’t supposed to start for like another 4 minutes. We’ve got time to run to the back room and clean you up.” Before you could protest, she was already charging her way to the back.

You didn’t try to hold back the smile that rose to your face. At least you had a good friend here to help you through this. 

Tessa definitely worked her magic. You speed changed out of your wet clothing in the bathroom, and just as you were about to say you’d gotten out of them, a pair of pants, a shirt, and even a different bra were slid under the stall door. You blushed slightly and looked at the door as though it was Tessa herself. “... Is this-”

“Of course it’s your size.”

“... How did you-”

“I worked at Victoria’s Secret for legit 4 years. Also, the wire on your regular one is gonna snap soon, you can keep this one.” You could hear the smirk in her voice. Blushing, you picked up the black, semi-transparent bra. Well… It’s not like anyone would be seeing it under your shirt. You put it on, at least relieved to be wearing something around your chest that wasn’t wet. It was also… surprisingly really comfortable.

You put on the shirt Tessa happened to hand you (thankfully just a solid blue tee) and the dark jeans she’d given y- oh. Oh, those were a lot more form fitting than the ones you usually wore. You cleared your throat, stepping out. “I’m not going to ask how you knew all of this would fit.”

“I’m good at what I do, bitch.” Tessa grinned and you rolled your eyes. “You look great. Now let me at your hair.”

That was a different story. There was only so much you both could do. Tessa had a brush, so you at least got it a bit untangled, but the hand driers could only do so much to dry your hair. At least it was a little better. 

You walked out of the bathroom back to the back room, hanging up all your wet clothing (making sure to hide your bra in your shirt and then under your jacket, just in case). Tessa was standing there with freshly made hot chocolate for you. You could melt. “Thank you so much, Tessa. This has been just the worst day.”

“Don’t mention it.” She handed the closed lid cup to you. “You’ll have to drink it while we’re working, shift’s starting now.” You nodded, sipping the chocolate. You’d needed this.

 

Work was… bearable, with Tessa. Every time you ran into her throughout the day, she flashed you a smile. If you both had a minute, she either told you about an important development (“Okay, so, some kids are _totally_ rocking the coloring pages in the kids section and it’s super cute, you need to check it out”) or else just something reassuring to you (“Bill just left for his dinner break and Cat’s got registers, meaning the back room is free for us when we eat, fuck yes”). This was a pretty regular thing when you two got to have shifts together. 

When you two did finally get to sit down to dinner, you didn’t sit so much as flop into one of the chairs in the back, groaning as your legs protested. Tessa shoved her tupperware in the microwave and hit the proper buttons, glancing at you as it started to rotate her food and work it’s magic. “Tired?”

“I don’t get it! I slept so long today, why am I so tired now?”

Tessa leaned against the counter. “No clue. I think you might’ve woken up during a REM cycle or something? Besides, sleeping so long messes up your circadian rhythms, which just throws your entire internal clock off. Your body has no idea what it’s doing.” 

You shook your head. Tessa’s knowledge of psychology always concerned and fascinated you. Must be how she managed to worm her way into your heart and life so easily, you figured. "How on earth did you learn all this? Why are you a psych wizard?"

She scrunched up her nose. "Actually, sleep cycles kinda fall into physiological studies, not psychological studies."

“Whatever. Retail brain, does not compute." Tess snorted and sipped her soda. You stretched and glanced at Tessa, biting your cheek. You _really_ didn’t wanna get up. “Hey, Tess, do you think you could-”

“I’m on it, bitch, don’t worry.” Only Tessa could make calling someone a bitch sound flattering. When she first called you that, you had been crushed. Now, though, it was endearing. Something only she could do that felt… natural, for her. According to her, she did the same thing to her sister. Tessa grinned and walked over to the fridge, pulling out your chicken salad and sliding it across the table to you. 

You both started to eat when you got your food and all. And then you just… breathed for a bit. You patted your hair, relieved to feel it be finally mostly dry. Thank goodness. You both talked about the day you were having - some little brat had rearranged all the kids books again, and, oh, remember that time you both ran into each other at the same time cause you were both shelving the same exact book? You shared a few laughs together, and it was just… nice.

 

And then it was back to work. 

 

Thankfully, for once, work was going a bit faster. Once Bill got back, you and Tessa kept conversation to a minimum. You might both hate him, but he was still your boss. You worked on cleaning up the store and keeping it tidy, not to mention keeping an eye on the register in case Cat, the newest hire who was almost always on register, needed to switch out. Which, around 8:30, after a particularly awful woman had gotten into a fight with her, you decided she definitely needed. She smiled at you gratefully and popped off to the back room to grab a snack from the vending machine.

You tapped your foot, sighing. Not long now. Time trickled by as you waited for customers, just watching the store. There were a few people milling about, browsing through the sections. _Just about 2 more hours until you’re home free,_ you reminded yourself.

The clock chimed it was 10 o’clock shortly. Good, your estimate of time had been right. You smiled to yourself. At least you’d gotten that time right. You shut your eyes and allowed yourself a second to just stop and breathe. You could almost imagine you were outside, breathing in the cool night air and seeing the stars, far away from any light pollution from the apartments and houses around your own.

 

It was a nice dream.

“heya.”

You opened your eyes, working you mouth into the Customer Service Smile™. That faltered as you saw who was standing there. “Sans?”

The jacket-clad skeleton looked delighted as he sat down a few books. “you remember my name? wow.” The lights in his eyes looked brighter, happier. Wow, okay, that was cool. Was that how emotions worked with hi- whoop, not now, girl, you had to listen to the skeleton, not analyze him. “seriously, that’s… pretty cool, seein’ as we only talked just the once.”

“Well, you’re a hard guy to forget,” you say, that fake smile you put on for the customers relaxing to a more natural, comfortable one. Sans’s presence just… did that to you. You’re not really sure how. You just didn’t feel the need to smile at him the other way. 

He laughed at your comment, nodding. “yeah, i can imagine. not every day you bump into a skeleton at the supermarket.” He shut his eyes (oh my gosh, that should be a lot weirder than it sounds, but it’s honestly just so interesting how he can do that) and put his hands in his pockets. “thanks for helpin’ paps with the pasta.”

Oh. Oh yes, _hell_ yes, you’d been waiting for this moment ever since you were 5 minutes into your walk home that day and you realized all the pasta puns you could’ve made! A grin spread across your face. “Not like it broke up my daily _rotini_.”

His eyes shot open and the grin he gave you was so big you felt like you just gave him a million dollars. He started to laugh, eyes half lidding (god you couldn’t stop watching that) as he does. “oh my god,” he managed to say between the laughs. You started to giggle at his reaction. This was a man who loved his puns. “kid, that was _pastably_ one of the most unexpected puns I’ve ever heard.”

You busted out with a laugh, giggling. Oh no. Oh you could see where this was going. You stocked up on puns, and here was a perfectly willing victim for them. “I think we both see what we’re _spagettin’_ into now.”

He looked a bit cocky now - no doubt, if his brother was a pasta lover, he had years of practice. “i ain’t _alfredo_ no pun battle.”

You tried desperately not to snort and succeeded. “You know what they say; in for a _penne_ , in for a pound.”

“just don’t try to say this battle is _mafalde_.”

What the hell was mafalde? You assumed a type of pasta noodle. Shoot, you were starting to run out. “Um…” He grinned. You gulped and licked your lips, a nervous smile on your face. “I think we let this _spirali_ out of control.”

“well, we started all of this _fusilli_ reasons.”

Wow, he was GREAT at this. You grasped for one of the ones you had thought of. “I think your brother would be _fedupccine_ with all of these puns.” That one was a stretch.

He grinned at the mention of his brother. “yeah, you chose the right _manaroni_ to tell these puns to.”

This time you couldn’t hold it back, you snorted with how much you laughed, giggling and holding your stomach. The look on his face was priceless, but you were too busy covering your face to see it. Oh my god. You just did that. “Oh my gosh, that was so embarrassing.” 

“heh. I gotta _tagliatelle_ , that was probably one of the best laughs i’ve heard in a long time. thanks _fiori_ the snort, kid, lets me _gnocchi_ these puns are solid.” You couldn’t stop laughing, oh my goodness. You were pretty sure you were crying. Thank goodness Bill was off somewhere else in the store right now. 

But the thought of your manager brought you back to the present. You took a deep breath and tried to calm yourself down, still giggling softly. “A-Alright. I should let you check out. You probably need to be getting home soon, it’s so late…”

“heh. don’t sweat it, kid. i’ll get home safe and all.” He winked and pushed forward the books. You glanced at the titles. 

“Methods in Theoretical Quantum Optics?” You glanced up at him, eyebrow raised. He didn’t look like the sort of guy who just casually read this sort of thing. He looked more like the kind of guy who slept in the dumpster out back sometimes. You weren't thinking that to be rude, but, well, one jacket can only have so many... what looked like ketchup stains.

Sans shrugged. “what can i say? i’m a science guy.” You shook your head with a smile (great, now you’d have Bill Nye: The Science Guy’s theme stuck in your head all night). You scanned his books in. The other two on the pile were different by far; “Fluffy Bunny and the Bad Dream” and “Fluffy Bunny Goes to Italy”. You glanced at him and he shrugged again. “papyrus,” he said, as though that said it all. For some reason, the image of Papyrus enjoying children’s books just felt… right.

You just focused on scanning the items with a smile. You felt like you and the skeleton monster were becoming closer. I mean, who lets loose a pun war with someone who was less than a friend? You felt a small sense of comfort. It’d been a little while since you last made a good “friend”. Tessa was the last one you’d connected with closely, and that had been 3 years ago. You had a feeling you and Sans might end up being that way one day.

You had a feeling you wouldn’t really mind.

You ran the numbers and handed his books back to him. You liked him, so you decided not to bother with the corporate jargon and ignore the promotions you were supposed to be telling him. “Alright, your total comes to $7.95.”

His eyes dimmed slightly, the lights inside shrinking back into the sockets. Why had he reacted like that? “you mean… seriously? it’s that cheap?”

Oh. He was in shock. You filed that emotion into your memory and smiled. “Yeah. We’re a used bookstore. Uh, you probably noticed that a lot of the books looked damaged or written in, and that marks down the prices, so it’s all cheaper.”

He looked absolutely surprised and shocked, which gave you the impression that he hadn’t noticed the books were damaged at all and that he just thought they were that way. Wow. “i uh… wow. i expected that to cost a lot more.” He grinned, looking… relieved. Suddenly, you put two and two together. He’d been concerned about money at the store, and now here he was again. Just how tight was money for him? For all the monsters? He chuckled and pulled out a 10 from his wallet. It was a bit crumpled up, like someone had just squeezed it in their fist. 

You looked at the 10 dollar bill on the counter for a second.

 

You felt something in you shift. You’re not really sure what. But you definitely felt _something_ change in you. It’s not really anger at his situation - though you were a bit angry about what he and his brother are going through. It wasn't not sadness either, even though you felt that too, all the time. It’s something that felt warm like anger and calm like sadness. You felt it wash over you. Your heart felt like it beat a bit stronger. Color felt a bit brighter. You were filled with that odd warm-cold feeling.

You are filled with… determination, your mind supplies.

 

“Here.” You pulled out your wallet, grabbing a crisp clean 10. He looked at it, confused. “These books? On the house.” He opened his mouth to protest, but before he could, you stuck the 10 into the cash register, grabbing the change in a flurry of movement. You were pretty fast at counting cash after working here for so long. You pocketed the change and closed the register as he sputtered. “There. Can’t go back on it now.” You raised your hands up in the air, like you were surrendering. “Can’t open the register and take out money unless I have permission from the manager.”

Sans looked at you, then the cash register, to the crumpled paper bill still sitting on the counter next to his newly purchased books, and then back at you. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, brows furrowed. Finally, he spoke, softly muttering. “you didn’ have to do all that, y’know.”

“I know that.” You smiled. “I did it anyways.”

He looked at you, his eyes searching for something. He caught your eyes. And suddenly, he wasn’t looking _at_ you so much as _through_ you. You felt a shiver run through your body and for some reason you felt frozen by that gaze. He watched you and you could see him relax, smile, it looked different somehow. Just an easy smile. Not forced or looking like it had to stretch across his face, but a nice easy smile.

And the feeling passed and he was grinning like he always did and suddenly you felt winded or breathless or… or something. You couldn’t even put a name to what. “yep,” he said softly in that rumbly tenor of his. “you just did it anyways.”


	4. In Which Your First Magic Lesson Gets Interrupted By Sexual Commentary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You learn about magic. 
> 
> Or at least you will as soon as Tess stops insinuating you're having sex with a skeleton.

Sans stayed there for the rest of the night, “browsing”. You could see him glance at you every so often. You worked to tidy up the store, giving him a meaningful glance around 10:50. Your manager was walking around and giving the place one more look over. You cleared your throat, grabbing the big special store microphone. “Attention customers,” you heard your voice say pleasantly over the intercom, “we will be closing shortly, and we ask that you please leave the premises as soon as possible to expedite this process.” Yay, you sounded semi-adult like. 

Sans looked up and shoved his hands in his pockets, the books he had purchased held in place under his arm. He smirked at you (why did he he keep doing that?) before heading outside. A small part of you regretted that he had to leave. The big part of you was too busy celebrating that you were finally closing. It's not that you had a bad day, really; you had cheered up considerably thanks to Tessa, and now Sans. But closing still sucked. You had to walk home in the dark, alone, and you always had a creeping sense that something or someone was going to grab you and pull you into the darkness.

Needless to say, if you could afford it, you would get a car.

Midnight rolled around and you and Tessa stepped outside (Cat had already left and Bill had some paperwork to file). Thankfully, everything had been fairly in order by midnight, so you and Tess got out right on time for once. The night was fairly clear, and the stars were out (though the accursed light pollution was blinding you from them again). You took a deep breath. “Oooh gosh, fresh air is great.” You locked the door behind you, relishing the fact that you didn't have to work for the next two days. Thank God for Friday's.

You glanced at Tessa who was watching you, just like she always did if you locked up together. You rolled your eyes. “You already know my answer, Tessa. I don't want you walking all the way to my house and then all the way to yours. We live in completely opposite directions.”

Tessa groaned your name, looking up at the sky as she did. “Come on, I don't want you walking that far! It's pitch out here and you aren't going to get hurt on my watch. It's just plain stupid to do that shit.”

“Oh, and it's not stupid to walk with me 20 minutes to my house, then add another 20 onto your 10 minute walk? You’d be walking for almost an hour in the dark. No safer than me.” Tessa just pouted angrily. “You know I’m right.”

“Ugh. Just text me when you get home, alright? If you don't text me 30 minutes from now, I’m calling the cops on you.”

“I don't doubt it,” you said with a smirk. “Go home, get some sleep.”

“Nuh uh, Varric and Bianca need some lovin’ tonight.”

You fought back a snort. “You and that game, I swear.” She grinned at you, that cocky grin she always had after she mentioned that game. You swore, if she had the programming skills, Tessa would make an RPG to rival all RPGs. You sighed, smiling despite yourself. “Just text me when you get back too, okay?”

“Always.” She held out her hand and you two shared your hand hug goodbye. She smiled brightly before heading off. 

 

You breathed out a sigh. You hoped she would get home okay. Tessa might be tough on the outside, but you weren't sure how long she could last if she got into an actual fight. She sure looked strong, but… Maybe you were just a bit paranoid. Besides, she was probably better off than you were. Your hand gripped your purse strap a little bit tighter as you had that thought. Go on, breathe. You’d done this a lot of times now, and you could do it again.

Doesn’t mean you had to like it though.

 

You turned to start walking, only to jump and gasp a moment later, barely managing to hold back a scream of surprise. Not that anyone would blame you under normal circumstances - after all, no one expects to see a skeleton late at night alone.

He opened his eyes as you screamed, just as startled as you. “woah, woah, hey, it’s just me.” Sans looked legitimately concerned for a minute, holding up his hands. You took a deep breath, willing yourself to relax. Ooooh goodness, your heart was racing now. “h-heh. sorry, kid, i didn’t mean t’ _rattle_ you so bad…”

“It’s alright, I-I just didn’t expec- wait, did you just make a skeleton pun?” You watched as Sans’ face turned somewhat delighted, if a bit remorseful still. “Oh my God, you totally did.”

“what can i say? ‘least i apologized for makin’ you _jump outta your skin_.”

“Oh my God.” You paused for a moment, but cracked a smile soon after. “You totally did, oh my gosh!” You broke down a bit, giggling. Judging from the way his eyes brightened as you did, it was to his delight that you laughed. Oh, that was a theory you could test out easily. “You’re such a _bonehead_.” Hell yes, right off the top of your head!

He broke down laughing as well, the lights in his eyes little bright pinpricks as they narrowed from his grin. So you had been right, his eyes are obviously his emotion, and right now he looked happy as a rabbit in a cabbage patch. It was so interesting, how versatile his bones and eyes were to show all of those emotions. “oh, that one was good, kid.”

“I pride myself in my punning abilities. That is, when I manage to say them without thinking too hard.” You bit back more giggling, thinking to yourself; you nibbled on your lip in concentration. “Sans, why are you still here? You stuck around awhile in the bookstore, and don’t pretend you weren’t checking up on me every few minutes.”

In the light from the street lamp nearby, you could just make out a light blue tint on Sans’ cheeks. Was that a blush? You couldn’t tell. Maybe just latent magic? “well, uh… i wanted t’ask you something, and i figured it’d be best to wait until work was over.” Ask you something? What on earth would he want to ask? “see, papyrus… well, ever since he met you that day in the store, he’s wanted to see you again. i wanted to hang around and ask if you wanted to go out with us sometime. like, to dinner or the mall or something like that.”

Oh. Wait, Papyrus… Wow. You’d only talked with him for maybe 5 minutes - and not much longer with Sans - and they both wanted to hang out with you. You thought about what he was suggesting. You had never really been one to just ‘hang out’ with people. Your hand played with the strap of your purse as you thought about it. Papyrus and Sans seemed really nice… and you didn't want to be rude…

Maybe just one day, right? Just to test the waters? They were mostly strangers, but you had never been really good at keeping people ‘strangers’ for long. A smile spread across your face. “I would love to! You didn't have to wait around to ask, though, I’m sure Papyrus is waiting for you at home…”

Sans was beaming, the lights in his eyes bright. “nah, paps is already asleep. he always goes to bed early.” He nodded to the books. “these are a surprise for his birthday, it’s coming up soon.” 

“Oh! You’ll have to tell him happy birthday for me.” You glanced at your watch. 12:09 already. “Yikes, I should really get on home.”

Sans glanced around at the nearly empty parking lot before turning back to you. “you, uh… are you planning on walking home?”

Uh oh. Your mind suddenly screamed stranger danger. But too late- “Yeah, it's not far.” Shoot. Your mouth needed to start communicating with your mind.

“at this time of night?” He raised a brow. “where you headed? i could walk you.” 

“It's really not that far,” you said, wringing your purse strap. You just met Sans, you weren't about to let him walk you home when you just denied Tessa that right. And even though he’s a pun loving skeleton, you usually liked to know who you were walking with… “Besides, it's probably out of your way, and I don't want you to have to walk all that way-”

“i live over on west ave, by all the apartments.” You stopped your rambling. “is that anywhere close? cause, uh, i gotta walk home myself anyways, and if we’re headed the same way…” 

“I live at those apartments,” you said, your smile coming back. If he just happened to be going that way anyways...

“then we can walk together. it's not out of anyone's way at all.” He seemed to relax where he stood. He glanced you over once, rubbing his head with his fingertips. “if, uh, that’s alright with you? if not, it’s good, i can find a shortcut or two and get out of your hair.”

You had just said no to Tessa. But… He was headed the same way… and the buddy system really was better for walking around at night… You felt nervous, awkward, but what the hell. Some of whatever you had felt when you bought Sans’ books for him came back, and you felt yourself smiling warmly. “Okay,” you said simply.

Sans’ smile eased and he waved his hand for you to walk with him before putting it back in his pocket - default position, it seemed. “then let's go.”

Swallowing that feeling you kept getting, you took a deep breath and followed him. By the lights of the street lamps, you could see he still had a slight blue tint around him. You wanted to know what it was, but you didn't know how to figure it out. Could you just ask? You cleared your throat. “So… What's the whole blue aura you’ve got there? Is that a monster thing?”

He glanced at you, puzzled. “blue aur- oh!” Sans grinned. “uh, that's… well, that's my magic. and, I guess by extension, my body?”

“Oh.” You furrowed your brows, glancing him over. Magic had a specific color? Or was it specifically his magic that had this color? “Is all magic blue?”

“nah. there’s all different colors. the magic changes depending on the type of person you are. me and paps have the same types of magic, but he’s more uh… well. hard t’describe, really.” Sans looked at you curiously. “not many humans can see magic so easily. like maybe a third of the population.” Well, aren’t you special? “can you uh… see anything else?”

You shook your head. “Why? Is there something more to see?”

“well, there's my soul.” Um. What. “kinda glad you can't, actually, that's kinda private an al-”

“Bring this train of thought back to the station for a minute.” He looked at you. “Are you trying to say I could actually SEE your soul? You aren’t being metaphorical or anything?” He shook his head. “But aren’t souls... kind of an insubstantial sort of… idea?”

He looked bemused. How could a skeleton look bemused? “sorry, kid. kinda forgot some humans think souls aren't real.” He shrugged. “well, they are. you’ve got one, i’ve got one.” He pointed to a nearby tree. “that doesn't have one, because it’s missing one of two things: magic and will.”

Your walk had suddenly turned into a magic lesson and you weren't disappointed. Your interest was peaked. “Magic and will?”

“yeah. see, monsters are made almost entirely of magic. that’s the base for all life. everything’s got a bit of magic in it, if it’s alive.” You looked around, staring pointedly at a nearby fire hydrant. Sans chuckled. “yeah, inanimate stuff has no natural magic. sometimes they can get magic, but without natural stuff, you don’t have a soul manifestation. boring stuff, really. now, will is where things get crazy.”

 

You jumped about five feet in the air as your phone buzzed in your pocket. At least the ringtone didn’t go off.

With a sigh, you pulled it out and hit the respond button, holding the phone up to your ear. Tessa's voice came through the phone. “Hey girl, I got back okay. You still walking?”

She means well, but gosh, does she have bad timing. “Yeah, still walking. I thought I told you to text when you got home.” You smiled apologetically at Sans. He didn't seem to mind.

“Don't wanna hear my soothing voice while you walk around, all alone?” 

She was trying to mock you. Ugh, Tess, you just wanted to know a bit more about magic! “Actually, walking and talking on the phone is kind of distracting. Besides, I found someone to walk with who’s heading the same direction.”

“Oh? Eh, I see how it is. I’ll leave you to talk to your someone.” There was a brief pause. “... Are they cute?”

“Tessa!” Shoot, now you're blushing. Do you always blush so easily?

“I’m just sayin’, if you don't text me back right when you get home, I’ll have to assume you brought a friend home and you’re too _busy_ to respond, if you catch my drift.” 

Oh god, you can almost hear her wink through the phone. “I’m hanging up now,” you said, deadpan.

“Just sayin’, bow chicka bow w-” 

You quickly hung up the phone, rolling your eyes. “Sorry about that, Sans. Just a friend from work checking if I got home yet.”

“eh, don't apologize for having concerned friends. everyone has ‘em.” Sans smirked. “so, uh, where’d we leave off?”

“You were gonna talk about will.”

“i dunno anyone named will.” You frown, pouting. He laughs softly. “alright, alright.” He pulled his hand out of his pocket to scratch his head. “well, see, magic is easy to describe, specially since i’ve got so much of it. it’s powerful, wild, and kinda exhilarating. will, on the other hand, keeps magic in check. the more you have, the better focus for your magic you have.” He gestured to another tree as you walked. “plants have a lot of natural magic, which is something that helps them grow, but they have almost no will. so, you usually won't find a plant with a soul, or the ability to control its magic.” His smile became a tiny bit strained. “unless, uh, it has a very strong will for some reason.”

You didn't notice the shift, lost in thought. Magic and will… “This is all so interesting.” You glanced at him. “So, monsters have high magic and varying wills.” He nodded. “What about you?”

He chuckled softly. “i’ve, uh, got a lotta magic. and my will - well, it depends on the time of day.”

You giggled. He seemed to be taking this very casually, and that was making you feel a bit giggly. “Is Papyrus the same way?”

Sans laughed a tiny bit. “uh, nah, he’s got enough will to rival any humans.”

“So that's means humans have...?”

“you all tend to have really strong wills and really weak magic. some people have more magic than others, and if they had a strong enough amount of both, they were classified as mages. those were the types of people who locked us underground.”

Ouch. Based on his face, the underground was a touchy subject. You wanted to lead him away from that topic, pronto. “Soo… Having both magic and will leads to a soul?” 

“yep. that’s about the long and short of it. and the artificial stuff doesn’t count - sometimes people with enough of either can like… lend it out. but you only have a soul if it’s yours.” 

You smiled. If you have a soul, then that meant… You were magic. At least a tiny bit. “I always liked the idea that magic and stuff was real. It’s almost hard to believe that it actually is.”

Sans smirked, chuckling. “wanna see?”

 

You glanced up at where you stood, blinking from the small overhead light. When had you stopped walking? “... We’re here.” Had that really been 20 minutes? Did time always go that quickly? 

His eyes dimmed slightly. “uh. oh. heh.” He grinned. “i uh… guess we’ll have to hold off on the magic show then.”

You looked at him, concern bubbling up inside you (okay, and a tiny bit of disappointment because of the lack of a magic show). “Um… Where do you live?”

He raised a brow. “over on 6th, about 7 minutes from here. ‘s not far.” 

7 minutes? You walking alone was one thing, but… He was a monster. Your mind flashed back to the news report yesterday. “Are you sure you’ll be safe? That might not be far, but it’s far enough.”

“i’ll be fine, pal. i’m a big kid.” 

You nibbled you cheek and nodded. “Here.” You pulled out your phone, pulling up your contact info. “Write down my number. That way, you can text me when you get home, and we can set up a time where we can all hang out.” You were volunteering to hang out? How weird.

He looked at the phone and grinned. “gee. didn’t realize all i had to do to get a girl’s number was tell her ‘bout magic.”

Aaaand there’s the blush again. “I-I mean, I don't mean-”

“i’m jokin’, kid.” He chuckled. God, he seemed more amused by your stuttering response than the joke itself. He grabbed his phone and started setting you up as a contact. “there. got you.” He smirked and started typing something. Was he-

Your phone buzzed in your pocket with a text alert. To your credit, you didn't jump at all. You pulled it out.

 

_unidentified number: now you’ve got mine ;)_

 

Oh goodness. You smiled and changed his contact to ‘Sans’. “You bonehead,” you muttered, not even for the pun this time. You smiled at him. His eyes were bright again and that blue shine was a bit stronger. “Text me when you get back, alright?”

“alright.” Sans waved, turning his back. “see you around, kid.” 

“See you!” You opened the door with surprisingly little trouble; your own door was easy too. Everything was going to well tonight. As you shut it behind you, you heard your cat meow for food. You couldn’t seem to stop smiling, even as you fed her. You just gave a guy your number. Wow. AND you’d volunteered to hang out! Big steps!

Monsters were a lot more friendly than some humans, you realized.

You remembered Tessa and shot her a quick text that you got home fine. Not all humans were unfriendly. You went to your bedroom to change and frowned. God, it was a mess in here. If you ever had company… Well. That’s for another time. You quickly changed into PJ’s. By the time you pulled the shirt over your head and relaxed on the couch with a midnight snack, your phone buzzed.

 

_Tessa: Glad to hear it. Anyone new sleeping in your bed tonight? ;););)_

 

Ugh, Tessa!

 

_Me: TESSA!! Ugh ew no, not someone I just met!_

_Tessa: Fair play, grl. Anyways, gotta <3 Varric some and get my slay on. Ttyl, txt me with anything if you need me!_

_Me: Yep. Later!_

 

“Uuugh,” you said, rolling your eyes. She was silly sometimes. You managed to crack a smile, though. Your best friend could be really funny sometimes.

 _Your only friend_ , said the little voice in your head. 

But. Well. No, that wasn’t quite true anymore. 

You didn’t jump, but smiled when you got his text.

 

_Sans: made it back oaky_

 

You giggled at the typo before responding.

 

_Me: Don’t you mean okay?_

_Sans: nah, i’m actually just leaning against the tree outside our house_

 

Oh god, that was an awful pun. You laughed softly despite yourself. What a goof.

 

_Me: Haha, alright. :) Glad you got home fine. Say hi to Papyrus, alright? And make sure to wish him a happy b-day for me!_

_Sans: you can always just wish him one yourself, his party’s the 14th_

 

He was inviting you to a party? Oh gosh, when was the last time you’d been to a party? You’re pretty sure the last one you’d been to had a bouncy castle and clown. Should you go? Stay? You hit send on the text before you even realized you’d typed something.

 

_Me: Oh my gosh, I can't wait!_

_Sans: heh. he’ll be excited to hear you’re coming. i can't wait either_

_Me: I’ll see you then!_

_Sans: see yah_

 

Well. That was an entire conversation that just happened. And you had just agreed to go to a party. For the first time in too long. 

You fell asleep with your phone charging next to you, a smile on your face.


	5. In Which You're Mildly Paranoid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe you're just too worried something will go wrong. It's just a party, right?

You couldn't get the party off of your mind all week. You actually had to have Bill void a transaction for you because you were so distracted, you’d messed up the purchase. Somehow, not even his disapproving glare made you feel bad. Nothing seemed to be ruining your week. No rude customers, no stupid questions, just a good week!

When the 14th finally rolled around, you had never imagined you would feel this anxious, though.

You looked over your outfit again, biting the inside of your cheek uncertainly. Would this be good enough? You were wearing one of your favorite red shirts and some faded grey jeans (your washing machine had finally just fixed itself for you), but would that be good to wear to the party? After all, Sans and Papyrus had surely invited other friends - probably monsters - to their house. 

Where even was their house?

You jumped as your phone buzzed - damn it, why do you always do that?! You pulled it out.

 

_Sans: so uh i never actually told you where this was happening, did i? woops._

 

It's like you two were connected! You smiled and sent back a fast text.

 

_Me: Just had the same realization. Is it at your house?_

_Sans: heh, nah, that's too small for everyone. we’re meeting at the park. you need directions?_

_Me: Oh man, it's been ages since I went to the park! I know the way, though, I’ll be there soon!_

_Sans: see you soon then._

 

It really had been ages since you went to the park. It had been a day you and Tessa had off and you decided to go for a walk. That had been a pretty nice day, if you recall. Smiling and armed with your present, you grabbed a jean jacket and headed out. 

The jean jacket was a good choice. It was just a little chilly outside, but not chilly enough for a full blown coat. You slipped that on as you walked. As you did, you worked hard to silence all those little nagging thoughts in your head that were criticizing your outfit. Screw it, you looked awesome. 

You hoped? Ugh. Socializing was hard.

 

It didn't take long to get to the park. The instant you got there, you realized you were in no way ready for this party.

Not even close.

“NGAAAH!” This big blue… Fish? Fish monster looked very frustrated about something. “PAPYRUS! You’ve gotta put more effort in it! Come on!”

You glanced to where you could see Papyrus, on shaking arms, doing handstands on the parallel bars. He looked uneasy (and you took in his flannel shirt and skin tight jeans with a similar uneasiness, how did he even put those jeans on?). “ARE YOU CERTAIN ABOUT THIS, UNDYNE?” So that must be her name. 

“Absolutely! Now come on, show me whatcha got!” 

You watched, tensing up as Papyrus started to fall, your concern growing into amazement as you watched him do a backflip off of the bars, landing on his feet. He stood up straight, pleased amazement on his face as well. “... TADA!”

Undyne gave a whoop as she jumped. “HELL YEAH! Papyrus, that was epic!” She ran over, hugging him tightly, hoisting him up onto her shoulders. He laughed, grinning widely. “C’MON! We gotta go find Sans and tell him about how you’ve mastered this human obstacle course!” You snorted. Obstacle course?

And then Undyne turned around, freezing as she saw you. Happiness turned to anger really fast. Oh shit.

“HEY! What’re you laughing at, Human?! Never seen a monster be this AWESOME before?!” 

You started to stutter out an explanation, a blush on your face. Oh no, you’d been staring, shoot- “I-I’m sorry, I was just-”

“UNDYNE! DO NOT YELL AT THAT HUMAN. SHE IS MY PASTA FRIEND AND WAS OBVIOUSLY APPRECIATING MY SPLENDID ACROBATIC SKILLS!”

“... Oh.”

You breathed a sigh of relief as Undyne seemed to relax, though not quite enough for your tastes. She walked over, smiling easier now (with Papyrus still on her shoulders). “Er… Sorry? Thought you were looking at us wrong.”

You laughed a tiny bit, rubbing your neck, your spare hand holding up the gift. “Nope, just uh… Sans invited me?”

She looked at the gift in your hands and relaxed fully. “Oh man, look Papyrus! She brought a gift!”

“WOWWIE! THANK YOU SO MUCH, HUMAN! I’LL CHERISH IT FOREVER!”

You laughed along with Undyne. “Fuhuhu! Papyrus, you don't even know what it is yet!!”

“THAT DOES NOT MEAN I WILL NOT APPRECIATE THE FIRST GIFT FROM MY NEW HUMAN FRIEND (ASIDE FROM HER CHOICE OF PASTA NOODLES) FOREVER!” 

You smiled brightly. Papyrus seemed genuinely happy that you were here. Undyne, you still couldn't get a very clear read on. But, well, judging from how sheepish she looked when apologizing, you had the feeling she might grow to like you.

You hoped she would.

“Well, c’mon Human! Let’s go announce your arrival to the others!!” She looked so determined to do it, and Papyrus looked so happy by the idea, that you couldn't protest. Instead, you just followed them and silently hoped that not all of Papyrus’s friends were quite this… Intense. 

 

It wasn't hard to spot the party group. Almost all of those there were monsters. And, uh…

Wow.

One was a scaly monster, she looked almost like a dinosaur, and you recognized her from TV. She had been on the news a lot. You seemed to recall her being a famed scientist underground. Undyne dropped Papyrus and ran over to her, hoisting her up onto her arms and hugging her. The yellow monster blushed badly, but she seemed to enjoy it too. You grinned - they were pretty cute together.

Then there were two people who were impossible to ignore. Three, actually - the entire royal family. Queen and King Dreemurr and their child, Frisk. You knew them clear as day, what with the peace talks making national news! But, well… It was hard to be exceptionally nervous when King Asgore was there in an undersized Hawaiian shirt and Frisk in an oversized striped sweater. Frisk looked surprised to see you - probably because you were a human. 

And then, of course, there was Sans. 

“oh, hey!” He waved, grinning, from the nearby picnic blanket. “i’m glad you made it.”

“Yeah, me too…” You walked over hesitantly. “I, um… I brought a present? Papyrus seemed excited to see it.”

Sans smiled even wider. “sweet, i uh… didn’t expect you to.” He took the box from your hands, setting it with some others nearby. You sat next to him, smiling. “i saw you walk up with undyne. i guess she already introduced herself?”

Well, if you could call that an introduction. “In a sense, yeah. Papyrus and her were playing on the monkey bars.”

“heh, yeah, undyne used to be papyrus’s boss. they’re really great friends.” You glanced over at everyone. Undyne and Papyrus were both talking with Frisk now, and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves. “and you probably know frisk from the news. they’re the ambassador for monster kind.”

“Yeah… It's weird, they seem so much younger than I imagined.” Despite it all, you couldn't help but wonder if you would've been like them when you were a kid; if you had fallen down there, what would you have done? You hoped you would've made friends like they did.

 

You were startled from your thoughts when Asgore walked up. “Howdy, human! I don't think we’ve met as of yet.”

“O-Oh, gosh, hello your majesty.” You stood quickly so you could.. Could what? Bow? Shake his hand? You settled on looking completely awkward cause that took 0 effort on your part. Asgore smiled as you quickly introduced yourself.

“It is very nice to meet you.” He offered up his hand (thank goodness) and you shook it. His fur felt surprisingly soft. “I hear Sans invited you to this party. How did you two meet?”

“Oh, well…” You were clumsy? Was that a good enough answer? “I just uh… bumped into him at the store one day.”

“yeah, i wowed her with my puns.” You giggled softly. Asgore watched you, smiling. “no need to be nervous. king fluffybuns here doesn't bite.”

Asgore had a pained expression as you tried desperately not to laugh. “Please, Sans, I’ve asked you not to call me that.” 

“yeah, i know.” His grin seemed to just grow. That was all he said. His face seemed to relax into a softer, more pleasant smile as Queen Toriel strode up, the ambassador holding her hand. “oh, heya tori.”

“Hello, Sans. Hello, human.” The Queen smiled at you, oh gosh you were getting overwhelmed. “It is so very nice to meet you. Frisk is excited to see another human who had made friends with Papyrus.” 

“I-It’s nice to meet you too.” Despite your stuttering, you meant that. It was so nice to meet so many monsters - particularly, friendly monsters. You hadn't had much friendship in your life so far. 

Other than Tessa. And, well, Geoffrey, and you supposed Allie counted too. But other than that… Not much. 

This was a nice change.

 

Toriel shook your hand as well, insisting you call her Toriel or Tori. No “Queen” or “Your Majesty” for her. Asgore mirrored her statement. “I might be King of the Monsters, but I am still just a monster like any other.” He smiled softly toward you. “Please, enjoy the festivities.” After that, Frisk tugged on his shirt, dragging him toward the sandboxes. Adorable kid. 

You sat down again, crossing your legs and trying to relax. Sans watched you, grinning. “not really used to such an energetic bunch?”

“Not really used to any bunch,” you said with a somewhat embarrassed smile. Sans looked confused for a minute. “I mean, uh… I dunno, between work and home stuff, I don't really get out much.” 

“oh.” And there it was. You watched the sky, knowing that this guy (still a relative stranger, really) probably thought he had invited some weird reclusive chick who never sees the light of day to his brother's party. He probably regretted it. Ugh, why did you always let yourself get super attached to random strangers like this? “well, least you’re out today, right?”

You glanced at him. He was still smiling. He… didn't actually look like he regretted inviting you. Maybe you were being paranoid? Or else you were just being hopeful you were wrong right now. You forced a small smile and nodded. “At least I’m here now.”

“HUMAN!” You jumped as Papyrus suddenly grabbed you, picking you up in a huge hug. “I AM SO HAPPY YOU DECIDED TO COME HERE TODAY! YOU ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE HUMANS!” In the sandboxes with Asgore, Frisk looked very offended. Papyrus glanced their way. “DO NOT WORRY, FRISK! YOU ARE STILL MY NUMBER ONE FAVORITE!” They looked happier about that. 

“T-Thank you, Papyrus, I’m happy you’re happy!” You giggled a bit. He certainly had quite the personality. “I saw you on the monkey bars. You did a great job!” 

Papyrus set you down lightly, beaming. “OF COURSE I DID! AFTER ALL, MY NAME IS ‘THE GREAT PAPYRUS’ FOR A REASON!” He looked so proud of himself. You smiled and nodded. “SANS, I WAS WONDERING IF WE GO AHEAD AND OPEN MY GIFTS NOW!”

Sans glanced around. “welp. everyone’s here. no time like the _present_.”

Papyrus opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. Undyne bit back a laugh. Alphys held back her laughter too. Toriel, of course, couldn't, laughing out loud and trying very hard to look commanding as she did. Asgore just looked very tired (although still sort of happy, probably to see Toriel laugh). Frisk bopped Sans (who was grinning like an idiot) on the head with their fist. You smirked at him, rolling your eyes and looking at the now orange-flushed Papyrus. 

He took a deep breath. His eyes closed. “SANS…”

“yeah bro?”

“HAVING YOUR PUNS ON MY BIRTHDAY MAY SEEM A BOTHER TO SOME… BUT I MUST ADMIT… THAT YOU HAVE QUITE A _GIFT_.”

 

“... oh my god, bro.”

“NYEH HEH!” Papyrus picked Sans up, spinning him around in a hug. Sans hugged him back, laughing along. Undyne patted Papyrus on the back when he was stationary again, grinning and shouting about how awesome the pun was. You had to admit, it was pretty great. But what else would you expect from the Great Papyrus?

 

Papyrus started to open everyone’s gifts. Undyne insisted that hers be opened first. No one wanted to argue. It turned out to be a hand crafted (kinda poorly crafted, if you were being honest) photo frame with a picture of Undyne and Papyrus cooking inside. You squinted. The contents of the pan were on fire… Papyrus shouted over how happy he was to have this new photo and Undyne gave him a noogie.

Yeah. You were starting to like her.

Alphys had gotten him something awesome too: an _autographed_ poster of Mettaton. You knew Mettaton, obviously - who didn't know him? He’d been on news stations almost immediately, been on cooking shows with the bravest networks and even already had an anime in the works about monsters. “alph built mtt,” Sans murmured in your ear. Explained the autographed copy, then. Papyrus looked ready to cry in joy at the sight.

Asgore got him a tea mug in the shape of a skull and several canisters of special homemade teas. Toriel had gotten him a new sweater (he apparently adored fashion) to wear this winter, as well as a beautiful blue scarf. Papyrus smiled and set both of their gifts aside; you noticed his hand go up to his red scarf once, but your attention was drawn by Frisk as they came up with a poorly wrapped gift. Papyrus opened it eagerly to find an apron that said “GREATEST CHEF IN EBOTT”. Papyrus did actually cry this time around, shouting big “nyoo hoo hoo”’s at Frisk as he hugged them. They squealed with laughter. 

You expected him to move onto Sans next, but he turned to you instead, wiping his face on his sleeve. “YOU NEXT, HUMAN! I MUST INSIST!”

“Oh! Um…” You suddenly felt a little embarrassed. It had been a really cheap gift, and everyone else had a bit more of a past in their presents… You handed it over. “I saw it at the store and, well, I thought you might like it?” 

Papyrus opened it quickly, stopping when he saw what was inside. He had a big smile on his face as he pulled out the cookbook. “SANS! LOOK! IT IS A PASTA BOOK!”

“I just thought you might like to know some more dishes. You seemed to love the pasta aisle…” You gasped as Papyrus hugged you tightly, tensing up a tiny bit. You weren't quite used to hugs. You relaxed a tiny bit as he continued, however.

“HUMAN! THIS WAS SUCH A VERY NICE GIFT, AND I AM SO HAPPY THAT EVEN AFTER ONLY MEETING YOU FOR A SHORT TIME, YOU THOUGHT TO GIVE ME SUCH A FINE PRESENT! AS I SAID BEFORE, I SHALL CHERISH IT FOREVER!”

Oh god, you just know you're blushing. He finally set you back down next to Sans and you giggled softly, a bit disoriented. “Thanks, Papyrus. I'm happy I met you too.”

Papyrus turned to Sans expectedly. Sans opened an eye socket (had he been asleep?) with an easy smile. “hmm? are those all the gifts?” Papyrus nodded firmly. You glanced at Sans. Where was his? “welp, this has really been a good year, then.” He stands up. “nice to just take a _brake_ from work for awhile.” Why had he stressed the word break?

Papyrus bounced slightly in place, impatient. “SAAANS, YOU TOLD ME YOU HAD GOTTEN ME THE BEST GIFT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD. I AM VERY EXCITED TO SEE IT!” Hadn't he just gotten Papyrus some books?

“aww, paps, you _auto_ know i would never stop you from gettin’ your gift. i’m just _driving_ my point forward.” Your eyes narrowed. Your pun senses were tingling. “maybe _oil_ cut to the chase.”

Papyrus's eyes narrowed slightly. You think he picked up on it too. “SAAANS…”

You thought about what Sans had said. Break… Auto… Driving? Wait… Oooooh. Brake, auto, driving-

You grinned wide. “I think you’ve _steered_ him in the wrong direction long enough, Sans.” Sans looked at you sharply, delight in his eyes. You could hear Toriel trying not to giggle. “Go on, give him his gift!” 

“heh. why not?”

Out of his pocket, he pulled a pair of keys. Car keys. 

 

“Holy _shit_ , Sans.” Undyne’s eye was wide. 

“L-Language,” Alphys muttered as though on instinct. She had a big smile. 

Papyrus took the keys, staring at them in awe. “... A-ARE THESE…”

“just hit the button right there, paps.” He sounded so happy. 

Papyrus did, and somewhere in the parking lot nearby, you heard a beep. He gasped and ran after it, followed by everyone else. You smiled, giggling. “Oh my god, Sans, how did you afford-”

You were cut off when you looked at him.

 

He was crying.

 

“Sans??”

He looked at you, a bigger smile than you’ve ever seen on his face taking up most of the space there. He wiped away some tears, sniffing. “yikes. sorry, i uh… i’m not usually so emotional.”

“What's wrong?” You frowned. People didn't just cry for no reason.

“just.” He laughed, shutting his eyes, smile somehow growing. “he’s twenty one now. can you believe that? twenty-freakin-one.” He opened his eyes again, looking after Papyrus. The magic around him was suddenly more noticeable, you realized; you could see it, just faintly. “you have _no_ idea just how long i’ve waited for this moment.” 

You watched him. The way he looked… You really did have no idea. You’d always been an only child, after all. You cracked a small smile. “Is it a good moment?”

He laughed, nodding. “better than i ever imagined it would be.” He took a deep breath, wiping his face off on his sleeve. He sniffed, glancing your way. His cheeks were stained a bit blue, but other than that, there was no sign that he’d been crying. “c’mon. probably shouldn’t let them run amok in the park.”

“Right.”

 

It didn’t take long at all to find them. Papyrus was shouting in joy as he looked at his new shiny red convertible. “IT’S JUST LIKE MY BED!!” How a car could be like a bed, you would never know. “SANS, OH MY GOD, HOW DID YOU DO THIS?!”

“i didn’t get all those jobs for nothin’, pal.”

“I NEVER IMAGINED I WOULD GET THIS FOR MY BIRTHDAY!” He held up two books from the backseat, squealing. “AND YOU GOT ME MORE FLUFFY BUNNY! SANS, YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE!” 

“heh. anything for you, lil’ bro.”

Little? Huh. You’d assumed that Sans was younger, but… You guessed height didn’t matter for monsters. You smiled, looking at everyone. Undyne was shouting just as much as Papyrus was about the car. Alphys was inspecting everything thoroughly to figure out how it worked. Frisk was signing (you did a double take when you noticed, but you guessed you’d never heard them talk after all) frantically to Toriel and Asgore, both of whom were fervently denying Frisk a car as they were too young. 

You giggled. Everyone here was so… So nice. So funny.

You could definitely get used to this.

 

You felt it, suddenly. There’s this thing that people can do sometimes, especially people who don’t get out much - and you don’t get out, ever. It’s this creeping on your neck, like there’s a nosy little bug working it’s way up. But not quite - you know when it’s not a bug.

It’s eyes.

You looked behind you to see two guys watching your group. They were both frowning. They hadn’t noticed you watching.

“Disgusting,” one of them said, loud enough for you to hear. 

 

Oh no.

This wasn’t going to end well.


	6. In Which You're A Badass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well. What could have gone wrong didn't go wrong, so you supposed that something else had to, right? At least it's all reset now.

“Disgusting,” one of them said, loud enough for you to hear. 

“You mean the kid?” The one who asked was fiddling with a cigarette lighter, trying to light the one in his mouth. He seemed a little shaky, maybe drunk. He managed to light it.

“They’re acting like they own it. That kid is human. It doesn’t belong to them. Belongs to the parents, can’t believe they’re letting those monsters steal it.” The one with the cigarette nodded.

What the fuck?

“Hey!” You heard your voice in your ears before you realized it. Both of the men stared at you. Internally, you already began to panic, but… They’d seen you. No stopping now. “Could you maybe _not_ insult Frisk by calling them an ‘it’? Better yet, maybe you could stop being racist towards their family?”

You realized that everyone had calmed down, noticing the altercation. Sans moved to your side. He seemed wary. You could feel the tension in him from where you stood; he definitely had a presence, despite the slippers and fuzzy jacket.

“Family?” The first guy spat on the ground, giving you a look at his disgusting mouth. Did he even know what a toothbrush was? Ew. “Those _things_ aren’t any family. They _stole_ that kid, then brainwashed it into thinking all sorts of bullshit.” Frisk moved closer to Toriel, their arms wrapping around her leg. Toriel scowled at the men. “If those things wouldn’t lash out, I would take that kid back and find its real parents. Maybe then it would start thinking like a human again.”

“hey. bud.” Sans crossed his arms. “might not be a good idea to say all that in front of a kid. never know what they might tell someone important. this kid is the ambassador, after all.” The underlying threat wasn't lost on anyone. 

The other guy looked a bit wary, eyes locked on Toriel, puffing on his cig. He didn’t look too happy about all of this happening. The first staggered forward, though, glaring at Sans. “I don't give a shit about if it’s the King of Timbuktu. A human doesn’t belong with beasts like _you_.”

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY THAT, YOU JACKASS?!” Undyne grit her teeth, rage sparking in her eye. Both men stumbled back a bit, startled. “Yeah, that's right! Back off!”

The man who was doing most of the speaking looked at you (probably realizing Frisk was more heavily protected, being a kid). “And what are you doing with them? Ha, you’re probably one of those monster fuckers. Else they brainwashed her too.”

“I’m here to celebrate my friend’s birthday, actually.” You balled your hands into fists, angry. Normally you wouldn’t be so outspoken, so ready for confrontation, but you were having legitimate fun for once. These guys - these literal monsters - were good people. They loved and cared more than these two dicks did, at the very least. “I’d like it if you two left. This is a peaceful celebration, and we really don’t need racist jerks making it bad.”

They watched you for a moment. You didn’t back down - you weren’t going to let these assholes put down your friends. And they _were_ your friends. 

You were going to defend them.

 

Finally, the guy in the back grabbed the front one’s shoulder, muttering “not worth it,” under his breath. The first guy glared at him, flicked you off, and started to walk away. Probably only because you had the royal family with you; they wouldn't do anything with diplomats involved. Still. You smirked and turned your back to them. 

“Hell yeah, you told those jerks!” Undyne slapped you on the shoulder, laughing. “Awesome!”

You rubbed your shoulder, blushing softly. That stung a tiny bit. “Oh. Ha, thanks? They were just… You don’t say those sorts of things in front of a kid, y’know?” You could feel Sans watching you, but you couldn’t tell what he was thinking just from a stare. It did cause you to shiver, though.

Papyrus shifted on his heels uneasily. “THANK YOU FOR MAKING THOSE MEN LEAVE, HUMAN. I AM VERY GLAD THERE WAS NO CONFRONTATION ON MY BIRTHDAY!”

“Don’t worry about it, Papyrus.” You smiled, trying to put him at ease. Poor skeleman. “I think they’re go-”

“L-LOOK OUT!”

 

Alphys?

She was pointing behind you.

Like the genius you were, you looked back-

Only to get whammed in the face with a rock.

 

… Ouch.

“Mother- GET BACK HERE!” You saw Undyne start to run after the men (who were fleeing fast after seeing how angry she was). Her hand extended and you thought you saw (or maybe it was a trick of the light) the glow of aqua green at her fingertips. You grabbed her shoulder quickly, your spare hand on your nose. You shook your head slowly - they totally weren’t worth it. She looked at you, scowling, but did hold back. You could feel her practically vibrating with anger. She was tense. Not good.

You turned to the group, glancing at your hand. Yikes, there was blood - you’d busted your lip. You gingerly prodded your nose. Yep - broken. “holy... you’re… that’s a lot of blood, kid.” Sans didn’t sound okay. All that light that had entered his voice when Papyrus had ran off was gone now. That just made you angrier at those men, but… You had to focus on your nose now.

“I’s okay, hol’ on-” Ugh, your lip. You would probably lisp all day, dang it. You held up a finger to tell Sans to pause a minute and then moved your fingers to the bridge of your nose. You pinched it very softly and pushed.

 

 _Pop_!~

 

You shook your head, wiping the blood from your lip off on your hand. The lip wasn’t bad, and you’d just taken care of your nose. “‘M fine, really,” you said slowly, making sure you could pronounce things properly. It wasn’t too hard, but you did have to concentrate. “Jus’ a broken nose and busted lip.”

Sans seemed pale - quite the feat for a skeleton. “did you… did you just reset your nose?”

You shrugged. “I once dropped five books on my face an’ broke it that way - it’s really not hard to re’thet a broken nose, ‘specially ‘f it was broken in the past.” You flashed an uneasy, embarrassed smile.

Papyrus and Sans looked at you in awe. Undyne beamed. “Oh my god, Sans, you invited a badass!” Alphys scolded her for her language again. She just laughed, slapping you on the back, sending you stumbling forward before you caught yourself. “Seriously, that’s epic, human!”

“It's really not anything ‘pecial,” you muttered. Honestly, it really wasn’t. You’d been embarrassed at the time when you’d broken your nose at the store, and while there hadn’t been blood the other time, this still wasn’t much worse. You were more disappointed in yourself this time, though. What genius turns around when someone says look out?

Still, everyone seemed to be pleased with how you stood up for Frisk. The kid walked up, hugging you tightly. They looked up at you, concerned. “Heh, don’ get blood on your th’weater,” you muttered, smiling and tousling their hair. They frowned, fixing their hair quickly.

Toriel came up, concerned. “Oh my… Thank you very much for defending my child, human. You didn’t need to do that.” 

“O’ course I did. I wathn’t about to let them ge’ hurt.”

She lifted a hand hesitantly, looking at you closely. “If you would like, I could heal your wounds?”

You raised a brow and shrugged. “Why no’?” Ugh, stupid lip.

Toriel gently lifted her hand in front of your face. For a moment, your sight was flooded with green light. Your eyes widened ever so slightly. This was magic. Oh gosh, this is what it felt like... It felt… tingly. Warm. You giggled very slightly at the sensation, almost like you had just laid down in a grass pile. It was ridiculously comfortable. You felt as though you could fall asleep right on your feet and settle in for the best rest of your life. 

Your eyelids slowly drooped and you smiled softly, the pain fading. When her hand pulled away, you shook your head. It felt clearer suddenly than it had all day. You ran your tongue over your lip curiously - completely healed. You prodded your nose and felt it shift normally without a shred of pain. But, more than that-

“Oh goood, you fixed my knee pain,” you murmured happily, bending your knees. “You have no idea how bad my knees hurt after work!” You bounced back and forth from one leg to the other, sighing in relief. Bending down to the lower shelves killed your knees more than anything else in your entire year. 

“Oh?” Toriel smiled, pulling her hands back. “I am happy to have helped!” She looked disapprovingly towards where the humans had ran off. “I simply regret that it happened in the first place.”

“Indeed.” Asgore came to stand near Toriel - close, but not too close. She eyed him, a bit warningly. You wondered dimly what the tension between them was. He sighed, looking tired still. You wondered if he would ever look relaxed to you. Probably not. “I’m sorry you have met with a circumstance such as this so soon into your friendship with us monsters. It is certainly unfair to you.”

“Please, your majesty, you don’t have to say things like that.” Despite what he’d said earlier, it was just impossible not to see him as a King (even when in that ridiculous shirt). “Some people are jerks. It happens.” You smiled. “I’m not going to let their stupidity ruin our fun today.”

Asgore smiled back at you. Papyrus was practically beaming. “EXCELLENT! THEN, SHALL WE RESUME THE FESTIVITIES?” Frisk jumped up and down at the comment, tugging on Papyrus’s leg. “HMM?” Frisk tilted their head, patting their stomach. Papyrus laughed. “YES, FRISK, OF COURSE WE HAVE CAKE. WHAT SORT OF PARTY DOES NOT HAVE CAKE?” He began to lead them to the car, followed by a few others.

 

Everyone quickly grew distracted. Everyone except two people, you realized.

 

Undyne grabbed your shoulder, glaring dangerously at you. “Human.” You froze in place, fairly intimidated very quickly. She met your gaze head on before her mouth split into a huge, fanged grin. Somehow, that didn’t ease your sudden trepidation. “What you did for Frisk was pretty sweet, but next time, leave it to the real warriors! No one’s gonna blame you if you let those with magic take the brunt of the damage.”

You raised a brow. You had expected this, but already? “Those real warriors who looked ready to kill? I don’t think so.”

Her face was stunned. Somehow, you got the feeling she wasn’t used to people back-talking her. She looked back at you, a slight bit curious under her shock. She smiled more calmly, a bit bemused. “Fuh… Maybe I was a _bit_ angry. But I know better than to kill any of those bastards. A monster kills a human, the monster doesn’t get away with it...” Her grip on your shoulder got a bit tighter. “But if _any_ of them hurt my friends… I’m gonna hurt them back. No matter the cost.”

You didn’t doubt that at all. “I know the feeling, but… it’s probably better to solve things diplomatically. I mean...” You glanced over at where the others were, specifically at Alphys.

Undyne got the point instantly. She nodded, sighing. “Yeah…” Her grip lessened again, her hand dropping away. “You’re right. It just… GAH. It just FRUSTRATES me!” 

“Maybe uh… take your frustration out on a boxing bag? Or maybe talk about your feelings?”

 

She looked at you as though to say “seriously?”. You shared a long silence.

… Then she laughed, snorting a bit. “Pfft, wow, you ARE a weenie after all!” She punched your shoulder (ow) before glancing towards Alphys, running over to her and picking her up, resting her on her shoulders. Oh god, the poor lizard looked so scared - but, at the same time, she was definitely enjoying herself.

You sighed. You just couldn’t get a read on Undyne yet. She seemed overly aggressive, but at the same time, something was holding her back. Maybe it was Alphys? Part of you accepted that answer, but it seemed like you were still missing something. After all, just you holding her shoulder wouldn’t be enough to stop a ‘real warrior’. You weren’t much of a presence. 

Speaking of a presence… You turned to the remaining monster. “Yes?” 

Sans watched you, eyes wary. Still, he smiled. “... undyne’s right, human. you should leave that sorta thing to us.”

“What, and let you all have all the fun? Never. C’mon, let’s-”

“no, human, seriously. you could’ve gotten hurt. bad.”

“And you couldn't?” You frowned. “I'm not just some defenseless little girl.”

“i know,” he said quickly, hands up in defense. “wasn’t tryin’ to say you were. but… we’re used to shit like that. seeing you handle it doesn't really sit well with us. what happens when one guy with a nasty insult turns into a gang with guns?”

You knew he had a point. You knew you weren't strong, or all that smart, and that you'd be more likely to collapse than last in a fight. You weren't brave and you had no idea if you even knew how to punch something properly. 

But if you didn't try, then… who else would?

“I'll try to stay out of your way,” you said. “But when worse comes to worst, don't expect me to stand there and let my friends take the damage. We’re all here together, after all - skin or bones.”

Sans shook his head, looking somewhat bewildered. He sighed softly, relaxing, deflating almost. “i guess i can't really ask for much more than that, huh?”

“Nope. Now, come on, we shouldn't leave Papyrus waiting, should we?”

Mentioning his brother seemed to be the right way to go. He perked up a bit, nodding. “yeah. let’s eat some cake.”

 

*~*~*~

 

The cake was eaten. You played with Frisk for awhile (noting but not commenting on the fact that you never heard them speak). Papyrus joined you along with Undyne when they were done fiddling with his car. The four of you just played freeze tag for awhile. Sans watched, dozing near the others. Well, that wouldn't do. “Come on, lazybones!” You shouted from your frozen position. You saw him jolt slightly in his spot. “Yeah, you! Come on, join us! We’re about to lo-”

“NYEH HEH! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WINS AGAIN!” 

You looked over where Papyrus had just tagged out a simmering Undyne, the last remaining runner. Undyne let out a burst of air, shouting, “DARN IT! How’d you get so fast at running, Papyrus?!”

“BEING A GOOD HOST!” That made no sense.

“OH! Well that makes perfect sense!” Frisk was giggling. Undyne turned around, eyeing Sans. “Pfft, human, really? You thought Sans could help us?”

Sans’s grin got a bit bigger as he stood, walking up. “heheh. yeah, human, i’m not really top notch running material.”

“Aww, come on, I’m sure it’d be fun to play with you.” You crossed your arms. “Or are you just so certain you’d lose if you were it?”

“yep.” He shrugged easily. “it’d be a game that never ends, given how much effort i put into things. sorry ‘bout your luck, kid.” 

He was right, unfortunately. He did seem like the lazy sort. But you hated that he was just sitting there doing nothing when there were so many things to do; you’d spent so long doing nothing that you didn't want Sans to do it too. But how to convince him?

Thankfully, Frisk seemed to handle it for you. They walked up, frowning. “hmm? what’s up, kiddo?” They crossed their arms, pouting as they tapped their foot against the ground. “aww, c’mon. i’d really prefer to _chill_ out over playing freeze tag.” 

“BROTHER, YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THAT PUN WAS WEAK!” Papyrus’s eyes narrowed as he watched Sans, his grin sharpening a bit. “AND BOTH HUMANS MAKE A GOOD POINT. I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO SEE YOU PLAY BROTHER, AND IT _IS_ MY BIRTHDAY AFTER ALL!”

Sans blinked. “bro. are you actually guilt trippin’ me right now?”

“NYEH HEH! PERHAPS!” His face softened again, eyes seeming to sparkle. Wow, he really was a ham sometimes. “PLEASE, SANS? I THINK IT WOULD BE FUN TO PROVE UNDYNE’S EXPECTATIONS OF YOUR ABILITIES WRONG!”

“Wait, huh?”

You tilted your head, watching Sans with a patient smile. He glanced at you, rubbing the back of his head - that familiar blue glow was back. You noted that it was centered mostly around his face, namely his cheekbones. Was that…

Was he _blushing_?

“NO WAY would Sans be able to beat all four of us!” Undyne balled her hands into fists, stepping towards Sans a bit. “COME ON! Show us what you’ve got, nerd!”

“PLEASE? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?”

Frisk tugged on his jacket, bouncing in excitement. 

And still, he was watching you, not quite meeting your eyes. You giggled despite everything that had happened today. “Come on, Skele-man. Show us what you’ve got.”

The lights in his eyes seemed a bit brighter. Then, his face took a more cocky glint, smile shaping just ever so slightly differently. His eyes narrowed as he looked at everyone before shutting them completely with a shrug. “welp. guess i can’t argue, huh? gotta really give it my all. just for paps’ birthday, of course. ” He chuckled and lowered his head, opening his eyes again. The lights in them were very small suddenly, almost black - it definitely had a sinister effect. “get ready then.”

You hunkered down, ready instantly. Your legs were just tense enough, your body ready to dart. Sans watched you all with that same smile, easygoing yet prepared. Papyrus “NYEH-HEH”’d in the background. You tuned out the movements of Undyne and Frisk as they prepared to run. 

“three.” 

You breathed in.

“two.”

 

You breathed out.

 

“one.” 

You blinked.

 

“ **gotcha** " a familiar voice said in your ear as you _felt_ something. It was a chill, all the way through your body, causing your eyes to flash open in surprise as you fought a shiver. The hair on your arms stood up, goosebumps rising - and god, what was this sensation deep inside you, a feeling of warmth that came with it, a feeling you just couldn’t find the name for, what was i-

Sans was touching your shoulder. 

You gasped, your brain catching up to you. “W-Wha-”

In a flash, he was gone. You looked around, frozen in place by the tag, but feeling frozen by more. You saw him instantly, but maybe just for an instant, next to Undyne - but now she was frozen, cursing the empty air beside her, and now Papyrus was gasping in surprise, laughing loudly. And Frisk-

Frisk sidestepped his arm, laughing brightly, and you got a good look at him.

 

 _Holy shit_.

 

He watched Frisk, his left eye blazing with a deep blue, icy cold magic. His body still had that intense aura around it, but now you could see it, much larger, much _more_ than before. He extended an arm and snapped, and then-

Frisk dodged again, doing a fast roll across the ground as Sans reached out for them, suddenly behind them. “nice dodge, kiddo!” You watched in awe as Sans popped here and there on the playing field, Frisk dodging his movements expertly. How… what…

Okay. Question one; how did Sans do that? Obviously, magic. Question two; how the hell was Frisk dodging it? Maybe… Maybe they had practice? Question three; why did Sans look like that holy shit _what the hell_.

Still. They had to slip up eventually. They turned at the wrong moment, Sans’s hand reaching out for them. They saw this and you saw it, just for an instant - they opened their brown eyes wide for a millisecond at most, the sun glinting in them and making them look red, and in those eyes was fear. 

But Sans tapped their shoulder lightly and instantly stumbled back as well, panting. Sweat (how!?) dripped down the sides of his skull. “h-heh…” He straightened up, eyes flashing back to normal. Frisk looked a little shaken up. He walked over very hesitantly. “hey kid?” They drew their hands up to their chest, looking ever so slightly worried. He grinned and winked. “good game. sorry i _rattled_ you so bad.”

They giggled, face brightening as they ran up to him, hugging him tightly. You watched, hearing Undyne shouting in the background about how this lazy sentry had somehow taken her down in this game. Papyrus was shouting about how talented his brother was, using so many shortcuts. But you…

 

You just wanted to know why Frisk looked so scared… How Frisk knew how to dodge like that… 

And why the hell your heart was still racing from the feeling of magic beside you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about how long it's been since I updated this one. I started two reader/sans at the same time to see which one worked better for me - surprisingly, it was my other one. But, I finally have the framework for a story for this one now. Have an extra long Christmas update, and hopefully I can keep updating this one now! Sorry again, and hope you enjoy!


	7. In Which You Might Have Identified That Weird Feeling From Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's almost like magic.

But you weren’t going to ask any questions yet. It was Papyrus’s birthday, after all. If you wanted to ask about monsters and magic, you could do that some other time. Today was Papyrus’s day.

After Sans’s stunning display of magic (and cheating, you were determined to point out to anyone who would listen), you all decided to settle down a little. It had been fairly exhausting for everyone involved, including Sans. You presumed it was from massive magic consumption.

Undyne sat down with everyone else on the picnic blankets provided by Toriel, sharp grin on her face. “So, what’re we gonna do now?” She seemed to have never ending energy. Not as much as Papyrus, but still, a good bit.

“we could sit and watch clouds with our eyes closed.”

Undyne sneered at Sans. “That’s just you looking for an excuse to go to sleep!”

“duh.” He did not appear to be ashamed at all about this. 

“W-We could play a more relaxing game,” Alphys suggested. “M-Maybe one w-without physical exercise? L-Like a board game or something!”

“A BOARD GAME?”

“i dunno bro. sounds like you could get _board_ pretty quickly.” Everyone groaned as Sans leaned back, laying down and watching the sky. His eyes closed, but you’re fairly certain he didn’t go to sleep. Mostly certain. You could’ve been wrong. 

“SANS, I HAVE PUT UP WITH MANY PUNS TODAY, BUT I MUST INSIST YOU STOP, ON ACCOUNT OF IT BEING MY BIRTHDAY!”

“ok.” He didn’t sound happy or sad about this. You wondered if he cared at all.

Papyrus looked your way, startling you slightly - when he looked at you, it almost always meant he had something in store for you to do, and that could mean any number of things. “HUMAN, WHAT DO YOU THINK? DO YOU KNOW OF ANY GAMES WE COULD ALL PLAY?”

“Oh, gosh, um…” And suddenly, your years of public schooling flashed before your eyes. All those free study hall periods… You began to beam, remembering them all. “Oh gosh, there’s so many games we could play, especially if we have a deck of card-”

“here,” Sans said, a deck in his hands already. How DID he move that fast? Even if he was magic, it shouldn’t let him just alter space time! And, well, if it did, that was so cool oh god you were going to have a melt down if that was the case. You smiled and grabbed the cards, feeling his bony fingers under yours. They felt… weird, causing you to pause for just a second. Not brittle like you expected, but… sort of like chalk.

You took the deck before he noticed your hesitation, looking through the cards. It was just an average deck. “Alright, with these, we can play a bunch of games. Egyptian Rat-Screw might be a bit too complex, so that might be-”

“What sort of name is THAT?”

“It’s… complicated?” You honestly have no idea where that came from. You shrugged, shuffling the deck around absently. “It’s basically like Slap-Jack, but like… combined with Uno?”

“WHAT’S UNO?”

“What’s Slap-Jack?!”

You blinked.

“Oh boy.”

 

That, of course, started the fun. You had to teach them Slap-Jack, though that ended fairly quickly after Undyne smacked down. Your hand ached for weeks after that, though you had to admit, you were happy to see she was excited. You outright banned Egyptian Rat-Screw after that, rubbing your knuckles. You also banned Uno, just because that’s the sort of game to play when you want to ruin friendships and drive people insane. 

Instead, you settled on playing BS. When asked what it stood for by the innocent skeleton turning 21 today, you sputtered for a minute. Sans grinned. “i’ve heard of this game, bro. it stands for big sneak.” What? “see, like she said, it’s a game where you gotta sneak fake cards into the pile instead of the card you don’t have. you’ve gotta be a big sneak.”

“AHHA! THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE! SO WHEN I THINK SOMEONE IS PUTTING DOWN A CARD THAT IS NOT THE CARD THEY SAY IT IS, I CALL BS ON THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE A BIG SNEAK!”

Undyne was trying not to laugh, as well as Sans it looked like. You strained to keep your smile relaxed. “Exactly, Paps.”

You played that game for awhile - Papyrus kept losing, no matter what, it seemed. He didn’t really mind either, by the looks of it; every time he got knocked out of play, he just seemed to enjoy watching everyone else ‘sneak’ cards. Undyne wasn’t fantastic at it either - she had no poker face. You thought Sans would be better at it too, but despite his incredible poker face, he didn’t really put much effort into his lies. It got much better once Frisk and their parents joined in; Frisk was a cunning little kiddo, able to hide anything in the deck. You weren’t at all surprised with how much they won.

No other humans bothered you guys. You guessed that was because it was Tuesday. People still had work - you were lucky you had off today. The spare few people in the park gave your party a wide berth, either because they were anti-social, or because they didn’t want to be near monsters. Either option wasn’t the worst in your opinion, at least at the moment; you wanted to enjoy their company right now. It… wasn’t often that you could just hang out with other people.

But it was starting to get later, fast. Papyrus really wanted to try out his new car, but Sans shook his head no. “maybe if we get privacy on a road somewhere one day, paps. but, well, we gotta get you a drivers license first.” You tried not to notice the slight flicker of Sans’s emotions in his eyes and failed. You knew how tough it was for monsters to do things like that right now. Hopefully Papyrus would be able to drive around soon. 

He seemed to accept that response. “WHENEVER IT IS LEGAL, THEN, I SHALL DRIVE! UNTIL THEN, I WILL CONTINUE TO DREAM OF THE DAY WHEN I CAN DRIVE DOWN THE HIGHWAY, WIND IN MY HAIR!”

“Papyrus, you don’t have hair!” 

“I DO IN MY DREAMS, UNDYNE!”

As Undyne proceeded to noogie Papyrus (to his protests and Frisk’s cheers), you glanced towards the king and queen. They had been quietly talking most of the day. You couldn’t help but wonder about what. After all, they probably had pretty busy schedules; stopping everything for a birthday party was a fun idea, but no doubt, they’d been talking about politics most of the day. You wondered if they would ever be able to stop?

The day ticked by more, until finally, Toriel stood. “I believe it is time for us to retire. It is almost suppertime, after all, and although Frisk got out of school today, they will have much to learn tomorrow.” Frisk pouted, looking absolutely shocked and appalled by Toriel’s suggestion. “Now, Frisk, I cannot allow my child to shirk their education. We will have plenty of time tomorrow to go over what you missed today.” She sighed absentmindedly. “I still cannot believe I was convinced to take the day off…”

Asgore cleared his throat, looking only mildly guilty. You think he convinced her, and you think it might not have been entirely for Papyrus’s birthday. You had noticed the tension between them earlier, as well as the fact that neither wore a ring. You weren’t totally versed on the details of the latest Royal Family, but you seemed to recall that their marital status wasn’t the greatest. You wondered how that all worked out.

“glad you came anyways, tori.” Sans glanced at everyone, his familiar easy-going smile plastered on his face. “so, is it time to go to grillby’s then?” Who was Grillby?

“SANS, YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE GRILLBY’S…”

“aww, but bro, you haven’t even seen the new joint. it’s not nearly as greasy as it was underground.” 

“Yeah! It’s really nice!” Undyne clenched her fists, a fire in her eyes. “Besides - you’re 21 now, Paps! That means we _gotta_ let you try a drink!” That one surprised you a bit. Monsters had the same drinking laws as humans? You would have to ask someone about that later. “And everyone knows the best place to get drinks anymore is Grillby’s.”

“B-Besides,” Alphys chimed in, “we w-wouldn’t want to miss out o-on your birthday s-surprise!”

Papyrus’s eyes began to twinkle (again, literally, how did they do that? You supposed magic was the answer). “SURPRISE? WHAT SURPRISE?”

“If we told you what it was, dummy, then it wouldn’t be a surprise!” She grinned brightly. “Let’s get this show on the road!” She picked up Alphys and Papyrus, shouting in excitement and glancing your way. “C’mon, human! Nobody gets left out of a Papyrus birthday surprise!” You sighed happily. You would be joining them, you supposed! 

As Undyne hooped and hollered, you glanced back towards the others. Toriel was talking with Sans softly. You could see automatically the slight tension in Sans’s back - you paused a moment to question how you had gotten so good at reading him, but you weren’t going to question too long. He began to walk back up to you as Toriel sighed. It looked like she had lost a battle with him. 

You kept your eyes on him instead. He noticed, looking your way. “what’s up?”

“I was just wondering what you and Toriel were talking about,” you said, hearing Toriel and Asgore packing up the rest of the things from the picnic with Frisk. You supposed they wouldn’t be joining you all. 

“nothin’ too important,” he said with a shrug.

“So nothing too important makes you that tense?”

He raised a brow, smile widening. “nah. the out of place bone in my spine, though, that might just do it.”

Oh. “What happened? Did you pull a… er… muscle?” He blinked, watching you as your face slowly began to heat up. You… You seriously just asked a skeleton if he pulled a muscle. Slowly, slowly, he began to laugh. You looked away, pouting lightly. “You know what I meant,” you muttered.

“sure i did. and don’t worry about it - musta happened when i was playing tag.” He shrugged, winking at you. “guess my spine is the only thing holding me _back_ from those games.”

You shook your head, groaning. “You never stop, do you?”

“only if the sign is blue.”

You got the feeling, then and there, that you might never fully understand Sans. Somehow, someway… you thought you wouldn’t mind that too much. As you both walked with the group to wherever Grillby’s was, you thought about the incident for a moment. How had you even noticed he was tense?...

Whatever. You had better things to focus on. Such as the ever closer orange neon sign that said Grillby’s.

 

It wasn’t a long walk at all. Seemed that Grillby had built his store near the park in order to strum up business. It looked like it had worked too. Work would have just let out for the day, being around 5:30 now, and already the place was brimming with people hanging out outside. Each time the door opened, you could hear music inside.

The thing that concerned you was the bouncer outside. They were… well… A wolf. A big one. They weren’t wearing a shirt, either, though they were wearing some really nice pants. They looked intimidating, to say the least, and you weren’t sure about going to some place that had a bouncer that looked like they kicked people down on a regular basis. 

But as soon as you walked up, their tail began to wag. “Bone-man!”

“jimmy! how’ve you been?” Sans held out his hand, summoning a bone. The wolf’s eyes widened and they licked their lips, grabbing it and gnawing on it. You held back a laugh. They were like a giant puppy! 

“Jimmy doing well. Learned they are sometimes male. Jimmy much happier now!” You supposed they… he… you weren’t sure, but the wolf looked pretty happy. Also referred to, er, Jimmy in the third person. You really needed to brush up on gender terms before you accidentally offended someone. Homework for the night, you supposed. Judging from the third person, however, it seemed they were using they right now.

“that’s sweet, jimmy. it’s real nice seein’ you. swinging by cause it’s my big bro’s birthday.” 

“That is right! Jimmy remember.” The wolf looked at Papyrus. “Merry birthday!”

“THANK YOU!” Papyrus saw nothing odd about their comment. 

They looked back towards Sans, eyeing him closely. “Jimmy been worried about Bone-man. Unlike Bone-man to leave for so long.” 

Sans shrugged. “been busy with my jobs. you know how it goes - too busy to buy me some new pants.” That was evidently an inside joke, seeing as the wolf began to choke on the bone in their mouth with how hard they were laughing. Sans had that mischievous twinkle in his eyes again. “alright, alright jim. gonna head inside now - have a good night, alright?”

“You too, Bone-man and Bone-man’s brother! And also Captain and Scientist and Human.” Sans strode in, along with everyone else. The wolf eyed you, but given your company, you think you got in without much scrutinizing. You still felt him size you up a bit though, which made you a little uncomfortable. What were you gonna do in a bar?

You walked up to Sans, muttering, “does this place really need security like that?” He eyed you and sighed, nodding. “Why? Does it get rowdy?”

“no more than most bars. honestly, this place isn’t nearly as bad as some human places.” You wondered how he knew that. “but humans can be real monsters sometimes, y’know,” he says, that same smile on his face, but something… different shining through. You’re not even sure how to describe it, because nothing quite describes it other than the feeling it gives, like he’s going to plunge into this deep, dark abyss of nothingness, or send whatever caused the smile there first. It’s enough to cause a shiver, even as you enter the warm establishment. 

“What happened?” You whispered quietly, taking in the scenery. It was definitely cozy, warm, and altogether friendly inside. Most of the tables were taken by monsters, though you did see some humans as well. No one was arguing or fighting, either, a nice thing to see; everyone was just… enjoying themselves. Up at the bar, you could see some people passed out. The bartender wasn’t there, presumably in the back.

“well. some... some _bastards_ came in,” he said, the venom in his voice suddenly shining through, and you’re surprised at the language you hear in his normally easy tone. “they came and they tried to hurt grillbz. got water and fuckin’ fire extinguishers.”

You didn’t quite understand until you saw the back door open - judging from the wonderful smell from back there, it was the kitchen door - to reveal a monster on fire. Your eyes widened. He was in a bartender’s outfit, and you quite suddenly realized that was Grillby, a fire elemental. It’s… god, it’s gorgeous, the way the light danced. But Sans’s words clicked around in your head. You felt your fists clench. “Humans tried to… to put him out?”

“yeah. they didn’t really get through their skulls that monsters have magic, and water buckets don’t do very well when they’re boiling to the point of evaporation.” You glanced at Sans. “‘sides. i was here to help keep the water off him.”

“What… did you do?”

Sans shifted uneasily. “i, uh… used my magic. didn’t take much, honestly. humans... they don’t really get monster strength.”

You realized suddenly that… you didn’t. At first, some humans with a bucket made it sound like Grillby was defenseless. But your mind flashed back to that conversation you and Sans had had that night, about magic and will. Humans had a lot of will, but sometimes, so did monsters. And whereas humans had will, monsters also had magic, and that was something humans didn’t really have anymore. That meant monsters… they had the upper ground. 

It was hard to believe that a monster, someone like Sans, a big boned skeleton in a jacket and worn out slippers, could beat up a human. But… that was just because you had never seen monsters until now. And, after Sans’s demonstration today…

“you alright?” You looked back at Sans. He seemed… uneasy. His smile was a little less happy than before. Well, that wouldn’t do.

“I’m sorry you had to deal with that, Sans,” you said softly. “Monsters… God, you all are so incredible. You’re all these magical… magical _things_ that humans don’t have names for, and I don’t mean like just types of monster,” you said quickly. “You’re… you’re so kind. So nice. You see people that are different and you reach out for all that, you heal without a thought, you… God. You’re beautiful, inside and out. And then you just try to find your way to a better place, and look how you’re treated.”

“I just wish… I wish the surface was a better place.” You looked back at Grillby, then at everyone else. “From what I’ve heard… sometimes the underground sounds better.”

“it wasn’t,” you heard him say softly. You looked back. He looked… you’re not sure. You couldn’t tell, now. Maybe… maybe struck in disbelief. You weren’t sure of what, though. “the underground… it might not have had shitty humans. it might have had easier laws and less violence. but it didn’t have the sun. it didn’t have the moon. and it didn’t… it didn’t have humans.”

You almost flinch back in surprise as he reaches out, putting his hand on your shoulder. “and, from what i’ve seen, not all of them are that shitty. just look at you.”

You feel a blush rise to your cheeks again (you never used to do that before). “I… I mean. I’m not…”

He grins easily again, surprising you with his emotional flexibility. “please. you just gave a whole speech about how awesome monsters are. you’re... you’re probably the only human i know who’s done that, other than frisk. and underground, we didn’t have that. so i’m happy to be up here. if just for people like you.”

Without another word, he went off to the table. You took a deep breath.

That same feeling from earlier was back.

That warm feeling, that surprisingly warm feeling inside, though the intensity was definitely less. No, all the intensity had been when Sans was talking, and you had had trouble focusing on his words because…

Because…

Oh god.

You had a crush.

Trying your hardest to stay normal, stay cool, you walked to the table, willing your blush to go away. The night continued as such. And you dueled with the fact that you had a crush on a skeleton you had just met.

 

*~*~*~

 

He didn’t know what he was doing. That idea shouldn’t… excite him so much.

For years now, he’s known every little thing he’s done. Each day, he woke up to Papyrus shouting the same words, something that had carried over the resets due to the predictability. ‘Wake up, you lazybones,’ he could recite. ‘We’ve got puzzles to recalibrate’. Each day, he would wander Snowdin until the human arrived. Sometimes it was sooner, sometimes it was later, but they would always come out of the Ruins door. 

And then it was just… the same. Every reset. Every time. They would find their way to Asgore, somehow. Sometimes they would be kind, they would make friends. Sometimes they would fight and spare. And sometimes… all they did was fight. All they did was leave a trail of dust.

And all he did was wait.

That’s all he had ever done.

But now, now he had hope. God, how long had it been since he had that last? A year? 20? Hell, that kid could’ve been resetting for millennium now. And for once in his life, things were new. He had no idea what he could do, what… what was coming next. Part of him was terrified, but the rest…

The rest of him wanted every moment to count.

He’d been working himself to the bone (heh) to get money. He had been trying to protect his friends any way he could, instead of just waiting around for things to happen. And now… 

Now he had met you.

And he had no idea what he was doing.

Part of him wanted to get attached. He wanted to know more about this girl who seemed so… so unique, to be honest. You could see magic, you seemed to know what made him tick, and you were just… incredible. You were kind, just, and most of all, determined. He had seen that when you paid for his books.

That glimpse of your soul had been enough to blow him away. Red and brighter than Frisk’s, your soul was as determined as he had ever seen. It had some bruises, but it looked perfect to him. He had never seen a soul quite so… mesmerizing. For some reason, he just wanted to give you his all. He wanted to get attached.

But there was that other part of him, that much louder part, the part that might have existed for a year, or 20, or a million for that matter… That part was telling him to push you away or else find out the dirty little secret that you were hiding. Because no one was that perfect. Everything in life had a good side, a bad side. He had one, his father had had one, and Frisk had one too, despite how good the kid seemed now. Papyrus was the only thing in his life that he could trust to be good, nice, and just… right.

He wanted to think you would be too. He wanted to hope. And maybe, one day, he would be able to.

But for now…

The other part of him was much louder. So he was going to wait and see. 

It was what he was good at, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got another chapter out, finally! I hit some serious writers block, but I'm back now. :) Not gonna lie, this chapter was mostly inspired because CoBC updated again, and I binge watched every Uno: The Movie video I could find - hence, the card games. Next chapter should be fun. I hope you all continue to enjoy!


	8. In Which Nothing Can Really Ruin This Right Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You've only known these people for one day, how can they make you this happy?

Grillby’s came and went, filled with some of the best burgers and fries you’d ever had (you mentally said sorry to Five Guys) and the worst puns you’d ever heard (and sorry to your dad). Sans explained that the burgers were made of magic, so they tasted indescribably good, but wouldn't be too filling for the average human. Despite what he said, however, you were soon stuffed. 

Undyne had insisted that Papyrus try some alchohol, much to his uncertainty. He ordered something with alcohol in it - you probably knew about as much as he did what was actually in the drink - and sipped it periodically. He only had the one drink that night, finding it not bad, but really no better than any other drink. Undyne, drinking a total of 4 brimming glasses of one of Grillby’s concoctions, disagreed.

You, Alphys, and Sans all opted out of drinks. You had never been one to drink often, especially since you were a well known lightweight; just a glance at you was enough for someone to know that fact. You might take a sip now and then after a rough day, but only in the privacy of your own home. It's not like you needed alcohol to make this a party anyways. Everyone else had that covered.

Papyrus’s surprise turned out to be that Grillby now served spaghetti, a dish he had never prepared in the past. He’d nearly cried when Grillbz brought out the plate of pasta. You couldn't help but smile and nudge Sans. “What's the obsession about?” you whispered to him.

Sans chuckled softly, eyes narrowing as he leaned towards you. “back underground, undyne was captain of the guard, and paps wanted in. she took one look at him and realized he… wasn’t quite guard material. so she taught him how to cook instead. the only thing she taught him was spaghetti, though.”

You bit back a giggle. Oh, Papyrus. Oh, Undyne, as well. It sounded just like what they would do. Why hadn’t she taught him anything else? “He must be really good at making it by now, then.”

“he’s gettin’ better. it’s actually edible now.”

You couldn’t hold back a small giggle this time around. You noticed Alphys watching you both, a small smirk on her face. Oh no. You recognized that face. That was a shipping face. Tessa got that anytime a cute guy started flirting with you at register. You eyed her with your best ‘it’s not like that’ face. She didn’t seem to believe the look.

For good reason, you guessed. Gah. 

You cleared your throat, speaking louder to ignore the thoughts in your mind. “Okay, time for the oblivious human questions that I’ve been trying to figure out.” Might as well do it now - rationalizing, when else would you? You had wanted to wait until after Papyrus birthday, but you might not see these guys again. Unless… Unless they wanted to hang out again? Still, it had already been said. 

Papyrus’s eyes lit up. “OH! IS IT FINALLY TIME FOR ME TO BE A PROPER MASCOT FOR MONSTER KIND AND EXPLAIN OUR CULTURE?” He looked so happy. “NO ONE EVER ASKS ME FOR INFORMATION!”

“Well, really, all of you can answer,” you said with an embarrassed smile. Seems Papyrus didn't mind in the slightest. “Like, okay, for one thing - you guys have the same drinking age as humans?”

“Duh!” Undyne rolled her eye, grinning. “Humans have that age limit for a reason, nerd!”

“But humans have that because it damages mental growth and stuff.” You were pretty sure that was why, anyways - that, and getting rid of alcohol entirely led to a loooot of riots, so the next best thing was an age restriction. “But monster bodies are made of magic, right?” Sans nodded, much to your happiness. You’d remembered that much from his little magic lesson!

“INDEED! BUT MONSTERS STILL HAVE A LOT OF MAGICAL ABILITY STORED INSIDE THEIR SOULS!”

“A-And younger monsters have a-a lot less control,” Alphys stuttered out in explanation.

“meanin’ young monsters and alcohol leads to a lot of accidents.”

You nodded. That much was something humans shared. Underage drinking usually meant injuries or fatalities. Made sense why there was an age restriction. “And it just so happens that you guys have the same age limit as humans?”

“AHHA! HUMAN, YOU APPEAR TO FORGET THAT MONSTERS LIVED ONCE ON THE SURFACE BEFORE!” Papyrus shut his eyes, holding up a finger as he spoke, as though he were imparting sage advice. “MONSTERS AND HUMANS LIVED IN PEACE ONCE BEFORE, AND BACK THEN, HUMANS CAME OF AGE AT THAT SAME AGE. WE SIMPLY CARRIED ON WITH THAT TRADITION!”

“Oh.” Papyrus was certainly right. You _had_ forgotten that monsters had once lived in peace above ground, before… well. Everything. Somehow, the reminder of that eased your heart slightly. If they had lived in peace once… Maybe, just maybe, they could do it again.

The rest of the night went on like that, you asking questions about monsters and, in turn, them asking questions about you and other humans. You learned quite a bit! Evidently, underground, they had a giant generator that powered everything called the CORE. That’s what Alphys primarily worked on above ground: teaching humans about self-sustaining energy. You also learned that not every monster had magic. Alphys was one; sometimes, monsters were born with no magic presentation, meaning they had no means to battle. That’s why she had turned to technology.

You snapped your finger at the reminder of magic. “Oh! And what was that back at the park, Sans? Can all monsters teleport on a whim?”

Sans snorted softly, grinning wider. “er, nah. guess i got lucky with that one.”

“It explains SO MUCH,” Undyne said angrily. “I’ve always been so confused about how you managed THREE stations that were all over the place!” 

“don’t forget the hotdog stand-”

“AND THE ILLEGAL HOTDOG STAND! NGYAH!” She pounded her fists against the table, shaking it and honestly making you worry about the wood breaking. “And anytime I asked, you always just said you had a shortcut!”

Sans shrugged, relaxing in the booth. “what can i say? it _was_ a pretty handy shortcut.” He glanced at you and winked, which made your heart do all sorts of things that it definitely shouldn’t be doing over a man - skeleton - that you had just met. “i’m just talented with my magic. it’s more practical than battle based, though.”

“DO NOT UNDERSELL YOURSELF, BROTHER! YOU TRAINED ME TO FACE UNDYNE, AFTER ALL!” Papyrus looked at Undyne, beaming. “BEFORE I WENT TO YOUR HOUSE AND ASKED YOU TO BE PART OF THE ROYAL GUARD, I TRAINED ALMOST DAILY WITH SANS. HE IS THE ONE WHO TAUGHT ME MY BLUE ATTACK!”

“Seriously?” Undyne eyed Sans with disbelief. “Sans, how long were you planning on holding out on me?! If you trained PAPYRUS to do those attacks, then you obviously know something about it!” She grinned, eyes sparkling with something you could only really label as intense determination. “We’ve GOTTA fight at some point.”

Sans shrugged. “maybe if i can work up the energy one day.”

“It’ll be GREAT! Human, you should totally come watch!” Undyne shut her eye, smiling sharply. “My magic is the BEST. I can freeze people in place, and they get shields and everything!”

“SANS AND I CAN MANIPULATE GRAVITY ON OBJECTS THAT HAVE MAGIC!”

“I-I use t-technology to weaponize the soul so it can fight back against attackers?” Alphys rubbed her cheek nervously. “T-Though it’s kinda weird and I think m-might actually be experimental a-and the only human t-to actually use it is Frisk and-”

“It’s great, sweetie,” Undyne reassured, wrapping her arm around Alphys, much to the embarrassment (and delight) of the small monster. Undyne looked at you and nodded. “What about you?”

You blinked. Was Undyne… “I… I don’t have magic,” you said lamely, unsure what else you could say. It’s not like you were a mons-

Undyne laughed, shaking her head. “No, not magic! I mean, Sans and Papyrus were sentries, Alphy was the Royal Scientist, and I was Captain of the Royal Guard! What do you do?”

“Oh…” You licked your lips. “I work at a bookstore.”

 

The conversation shifted to you at that point as you told stories about your life, from what your job was like to how you ended up there in the first place, which really wasn’t the most incredible story. You saw a sign for help wanted, you filled out the online application, and Bill liked you enough to hire you. Everyone vowed to visit you in the bookstore all the time, just to annoy you while you were trying to work. You told them you couldn’t wait. You also answered all of Papyrus’s driving questions - you could see his new shiny red car was the only thing on his mind. You even talked about your cat, Allie. Papyrus desperately wanted to meet her. 

“not tonight, paps,” Sans said, honestly coming to your rescue - you had some major cleaning to do before letting anyone come over. “‘sides, we should be getting home here soon. don’t you have work tomorrow?”

“Work? I thought you were an unofficial mascot?” Sans seemed impressed that you remembered. Papyrus looked far less impressed, though still somewhat impressed as he shut his eyes in pride.

“THAT IS _OFFICIAL_ UNOFFICIAL MASCOT! THERE IS QUITE A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO. I DO NOT GET PAID FOR BEING FABULOUS, AFTER ALL!” You smiled at that comment. The only one who got paid for that was Mettaton. “SO ON THE WEEKENDS, ASGORE PAYS ME TO TAKE CARE OF THE GARDENS AT THE PALACE!”

“Palace?” You glanced around the table. “But there’s no palace for the monster king, other than…” Your eyes widened as the collective group seemed just a tiny bit sadder. “Asgore stays underground?”

“Sometimes.” Undyne sighed, frowning. “There’s really no other place to get the important work done. There’s no safe area for monsters to go to him with problems, other than down there. There’s no place he can work without being harassed by reporters, other than down there. There’s no place he really feels comfortable yet, other than-”

“Down there,” you finished, frowning softly as well. No monster deserved to stay cooped up underground after finally reaching the surface, their main - and sometimes only - goal for years on end. You looked at Papyrus. “So you work on the gardens underground?”

“YES INDEED! THE PALACE IS MUCH MORE OPEN, NOW THAT THE BARRIER IS DESTROYED! I MAKE SURE THE UNDERGROUND IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL FOR ANY MONSTERS WHO REMAIN THERE! THEY DESERVE TO SEE THE BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS WE HAVE UP HERE!”

You smiled slowly, heart warmed just from Papyrus’s sheer just… everything. Of course he thought of it that way. Had it been you, you would’ve just been sad for those monsters who didn’t feel safe enough to live on the surface. You knew a great deal of them stayed underground where they thought they could survive easier. But instead, he was just so happy to brighten their days. 

You were happy you were his friend.

_Everyone_ here was your friend.

You were so happy.

 

“IN ANY CASE, SANS, YOU ARE CORRECT. I DO HAVE WORK TOMORROW, AND I MUST GET PLENTY OF SLEEP! THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR MAKING THIS THE BEST 21ST BIRTHDAY I HAVE EVER HAD.” Everyone laughed at that, to his confusion. He shook his head instead of questioning it, looking at you. “HUMAN! I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO SEE YOU AGAIN VERY SOON AS YOU ARE A NEW FRIEND AND I WISH TO KNOW EVEN MORE ABOUT YOU!”

You couldn’t seem to stop smiling! God, it had been so long since you had hung out with people, but now! “Of course! I would love to hang out with you guys. Oh gosh, but my work schedule is kinda all over the place. I know we’re closed on Halloween night, though-” You eyes widened and you looked at everyone. “We should all hang out on Halloween.” 

Everyone watched you, not comprehending.

“... You guys… _do_ know what Halloween is, right?”

They shook their heads.

You grinned brightly.

“I can’t _wait_.”

 

*~*~*~

 

You all had made plans for Halloween. You had explained that, generally, Halloween was actually a celebration of monsters and “scary stuff”. You explained how everyone dressed up as types of monsters or other fun stuff and got candy for it. Apparently the monsters had something similar underground, but they hadn’t gone too much into detail. 

On Halloween, you were going to get together with everyone; before then, though, they were planning on invading the bookstore in order to see you and to get your schedule. You had agreed in a heartbeat - seeing them at the store would lift your spirits so much.

You thought about that as you fiddled with the lock on your door after everyone had walked you home (oh god, they knew where you lived now, they could show up whenever they wanted, you really needed to clean). Tessa would probably get to meet them all - she worked most of the same hours as you, likely because Bill, as stupid as he was, probably realized that you two worked best together. Geoff was still out - you felt bad about not visiting, but it just kept slipping your mind for some reason! - and Kat would be taking a well deserved break after a full week of work to allow some vacation days. There were others workers too, but you weren’t nearly as close to them (you often forgot their names), and… 

God, you hoped this would go well.

But for now, it was time to relax. You’d had an exciting day. Off came the clothes, on came the pajamas. Allie meowed at you to feed her and you did so, humming happily. Gosh, you were happy. The house felt… awkward, being so empty, though. You’d been hanging out with people all day, and while the recharge time was nice, it was still different. 

You glanced at the clock. Tess would be out of work by now… You grabbed your phone, nibbling your lip. Should you…

 

You should. Definitely. 

You started to type a message, hesitating a bit. She would never let you live it down if you hit send, but… 

Too late, your thumb did it for you.

 

_Me: So I went out with friends today and I’m crushing on one of them and he's nice_

 

You’d added the last part as though it changed anything. Of course someone you were crushing on would be- 

The response was almost instantaneous. Oh lord.

 

_Tessa: OMG GRL NAH_  
_Tessa: YOU’RE KIDDING ME_  
_Tessa: Is it anyone I know?_  
_Tessa: DID YOU MEET HIM @ WORK OMG YOU TOTALLY DID_

 

Oh god she was still typing-

 

_Me: TESSA CHILL!_

_Tessa: Are you kidding?! No way, answer my questions, gimmie the deats_

_Me: Ugh, Tessa. I met him at the store, yeah. I dunno if you saw him._

_Tessa: Knew it!_  
_Tessa: Is he that guy with the asslong hair?_

_Me: Ew, what? No._

_Tessa: Haha, good, your taste in men is secure then. Is it Alex? Cause coworker ships are a nono with THE DEVIL INCARNATE_  
_Tessa: PFFT Forgot I changed Bill’s name in my phone_

_Me: Okay, kind of funny. Also who is Alex? I don't know him._

_Tessa: He works seasonal, but you sorta answered my question there ;););)_

_Me: I see you typing_  
_Me: Why don't I just tell you who it is?_

_Tessa: And ruin the fun?_

_Me: Yes. His name is Sans._

_Tessa: What? Sounds foreign._

_Me: No more than your name!_  
_Me: He's um…_  
_Me: Sort of a monster?_

_Tessa: Oh wait! Was he that skeleton walking around the other night?_  
_Tessa: !!!!!!_  
_Tessa: HE TOTALLY WALKED YOU HOME OMG_  
_Tessa: HE’S THE ONE THAT WALKED YOU HOME THAT NIGHT OOOH_

_Me: Yeah he did._

_Tessa: OKAY. All the deats. I'm making popcorn. No holding back._

  


You laughed, shaking your head. You had known she would be interested, but lord, sometimes you underestimated her enthusiasm. You shot her a quick text to hold off for a few seconds while you made some food yourself - Sans had been right, magic food was delicious, but not too filling. You stood and went to the kitchen, grabbing some crackers and cheese. 

You could still feel this soft glow of friendship with you; it was silly to think of it like that, but that was really the only way to describe it. Your home felt less empty, chatting with Tessa, even when she wasn’t really there. You guessed Tessa was just like that. 

You sat down, texting back and forth with Tessa as you munched on your snack. You told her just about everything - the walk, the talks about magic, the day at the park - and couldn’t help laughing at all of her responses. The jokes she made about the magic of arousal had you groaning, burying your face in your hands. 

The worst part was, she wasn’t _entirely_ wrong about the effect of Sans’s magic on you. That feeling just of his teleporting next to you… 

Blushing, you shook your head, responding back about how immature she was. You kept chatting, probably long after you should’ve been up, until finally you’re certain she passed out. She normally responds within seconds, but it had been a half hour now. Stretching, you shot her a goodnight and turned off the TV. Without background noise, you suddenly realized you were getting pretty sleepy yourself. 

You stood, stretching. You didn’t have to work for another two days. You could sleep in a little tomorrow and go to the store after you got up. Maybe take a walk. You could just take the day and treat yourself in the best ways, instead of dwelling on all those little things that normally called your attention. Laundry wasn’t important right now, and cleaning wasn’t crucial. 

You just wanted to let this live awhile longer. 

You grabbed your phone and went to the bedroom, reading short stories for just a little while before slowly drifting off to sleep, happier than you had felt in years. And you weren't going to let anything ruin it anytime soon. 

  


*~*~*~

  


“You have everything we need?” 

“Should be good to go. Think we’re bein’ stupid? We’ve got so much ready and it ain’t even time yet.” 

“We need to be prepared. Monsters are going to be out in full force. It’ll be the best time to do this.” 

“Still… You sure this is gonna work?” 

“No. Nothing is certain, and something out of the blue might happen. That’s why we’re getting ready now. We might not be able to plan for everything, but we can at least plan for most of it.” 

“Heh, they won’t even know what hit ‘em.” 

“That’s the idea. Here, move that over to the right wall, we should have some sort of organization. It’s going to get messy, come Halloween. The costumes need to be ready as well, those can go on the left wall - how’s Eliza coming with those?” 

“Should be done any day, boss.” 

“Good. And I’ve told you before. My name’s Seth.” 

“Right, right, sorry. Anyways, we should get goin’. My missus will wonder what’s taking me so long.” 

“Right. I’ll take my leave. Finish up here, and have a goodnight.” 

“You’s’well.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh, editing this one was a nightmare thanks to Tessa's texts. In any case, hope you enjoy the chapter! If you wanna chat about it, feel free to comment or head over to [my official looking tumblr](http://misssugarpinkshome.tumblr.com/) for more fun.
> 
> See you there!


	9. In Which You Feel Many Things, Including Happiness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You needed a pick-me-up and god did Paps and Sans deliver. It just gives you mixed feelings how Sans handled Bill.

Normally, you didn’t ‘hate’ work. You loved books, after all, and shelving was honestly relaxing. Alphabetizing the various shelves helped calm you down after a bad day, taking hours of your time lost in titles and authors. Sure, kneeling down to the bottom shelves killed your knees, but it was the price you had to pay for hours of being away from customers.

So normally, if you were shelving and alphabetizing, you didn’t hate work.

It was just on register that life sucked.

“What do you _mean_ , you don’t have season 3 anymore?” 

You took a deep breath, biting your lip uncertainly. The woman in front of you was staring you down with the wrath of the devil in her eyes. You could literally see the flames. But no matter how angry she was, the computer wasn’t lying when it said there were 0 copies of her DVD in the store - seriously, why did your bookstore start selling DVDs in the first place? Why can’t people just like books? “I’m sorry, but we must have sold the last copy-”

“But I was _just_ here _two days ago_!” You bit down a bit harder as she interrupted you. You hated when people did that! “You had it then!”

“I’m very sorry,” you said again, “but we must have sold it between then and now.”

The woman scoffed, crossing her arms. “When will you be getting it back in?”

“I don’t know. It all depends on if someone sells it back to us.”

She took a deep breath. “ _Fine_. I’ll take my business elsewhere.” She lifted up her chin at you, nose scrunched in disgust. Her mouth was a firm frown - it looked like that was more comfortable than a smile on her face. “Maybe that’ll teach you to treat your customers better.” With that, she walked away and straight out the door.

You took a deep breath.

 

… God. Damn.

Some days, you _really_ hated your job.

You rubbed your face, reaching under the counter and grabbing your soda. You needed some sort of pick-me-up after that encounter. You could practically feel your body wilting from that nasty woman. It wasn’t even that she was so awful, it’s just… Why were people so _rude_ sometimes? You didn’t get it.

You took a sip of your soda. It didn’t really pick you up much.

“THERE IT IS, SANS!”

Your eyes widened and you choked a bit on your drink. The soda might not be much of a pick-me-up, but a certain skeleton you knew of definitely was. 

The door opened and you watched with a growing smile as Papyrus charged in, looking around with excitement clear on his face. He spotted you almost immediately. “HUMAN!”

“Papyrus!” You laughed a bit, waving him over. You glanced around. Thankfully, the store wasn't too busy today. Less thankfully, that meant that every employee here today was already looking towards the front in confusion. Oh gosh. Why must he be so loud?

Papyrus didn't seem to care. He came up to your register. You took him in with a bewildered look. It's not that Papyrus couldn't pull off a sweater and jeans. It's just that Papyrus was wearing a light up Halloween sweater. It had skeletons on it with flashing eyes. 

He beamed at you. “HUMAN! SANS MANAGED TO TAKE OFF WORK TODAY, SO WE DECIDED WE SHOULD STOP BY AND SAY HELLO!”

Sans finally caught up, lazily wandering to the registers. “heya, bud.”

“Oh gosh, it's so nice to see you two!” You smiled, feeling instantly happier. This was definitely nice after that crabby woman. “I didn't expect you two to pop in so soon!” 

It was Thursday now, the 16th, and you had been far too doubtful to expect any of the monsters you had met to come to the store this soon. You didn't expect them to come by at all, to be truthful. Part of you still listened to that little voice in your head that was so sure that none of the monsters at that party had actually liked you. That maybe they just tolerated you because it was Papyrus’s birthday. 

Each time you saw them, that got just a little bit harder to believe. 

“WELL, WE ARE HERE NOW!” Papyrus looked around in awe. “IT IS SO NICE HERE! THERE ARE SO MANY BOOKS.” He looked at Sans with puppy dog eyes. “PLEASE SANS?”

Sans rolled his eyes - the little lights in his eye sockets anyways - with a loving smile. Oh golly, that did more weird things to your heart. Totally not fair. “alright, paps. we can go look at fluffy bunny.” Papyrus beamed.

You smiled brighter as well. “You know, we’ve got reading tables in the kids section? You don't have to buy them to read them.” Papyrus gasped in glee and took off. You laughed a bit and glanced at Sans. “Does… does he even know where they are?”

Sans sighed, not at all sadly. “nope.” He grinned at you, leaning against the register counter a bit. “i’ll let him run around a bit. he deserves a lil’ fun.” 

You chuckled a bit. “He sure does. You know, we did just have someone sell back some used Fluffy Bunny for cheap. I'm sure someone could check the to-be-shelved for-”

Of all of the times for Bill to walk up, it was, of course now. “Did you need anything, Sir,” he interrupted in his Customer Service™ voice as he walked up with a tote in his arms. You glanced inside. Register merch. Just what you always wanted. 

“huh? oh, nah, i’m good. my lil’ bro is just checkin’ out the kids section.” He glanced once at the tote in Bill’s arms. “need any help with that?” 

“Oh, thank you, but no!” He set it down next to the other totes you had already put away that day. Ugh, did you seriously get in more mugs? How many mugs did they think you could balance precariously in front of the registers? You were getting really tired of all the register merchandise. Sigh. Bill glanced up at you with a big, unnaturally peppy smile. “If you could put those away, Sweetie?”

Sans glanced between you and your manager. He raised a brow. You took a deep breath and nodded. “Sure thing, Bill,” you said with a forced smile. You nodded to Sans. “Nice seeing you, Sans. You ought to go get P-”

“actually, _sir_ , i did have a question.” Sans is no longer looking at you, instead looking at Bill, whose head sharply turns to Sans with that same big smile. You immediately felt worried; you didn’t like that edge in Sans’s voice. “see, i’ve been looking for a book, was wonderin’ if you had it.”

“Oh, of course! Let me just search for it in our system.” Bill happily walked to the computer, opening up your database. You watched this happen, glancing at the queue line - thankfully, the store was still pretty sparse of customers today. You grabbed some mugs while Bill handled Sans, going to put them on the display that still had some spare room. You eavesdropped, just a little - you wanted to see what Sans was up to. You knew that mischievous voice from tag. He was definitely planning something. “Now, what was the title?”

“i dunno.”

Bill blinked. You resisted the urge to snicker. Oh god. Was he seriously just going to be a dick to your manager? “Is… that the title of the book?”

Sans leaned against the counter again, his back partially turned to Bill. He was looking at his fingers. “nah, i don’t remember the name of it. i know the author's name, though.”

Bills demeanor immediately brightened up at that. “Okay! What’s the name?”

“gaster.” He nodded. “w.d. gaster is his name.” 

“Alright. Just give me a moment…” 

“take your time.” Sans glanced over at where you were precariously stacking mugs. You stared at him with a look that clearly said ‘I know what you’re doing’. He flashed you a wide smile back and a slow wink that made you hold onto the mugs a little tighter. God, that plain wasn’t fair. Him making your heart do that wasn’t fair.

He was a _skeleton_ for pete’s sake. 

“I’m sorry sir, but I’m not seeing any books with that author.”

“what?” He turned back to Bill, raising a brow. “nothin’?” 

“No, sir, I’m sorry. We’ve never had any books by him in our system.” 

“you sure y’spelled it right?” 

You resisted the urge to snicker. It wasn’t too hard to spell ‘Gaster’. Bill’s smile grew a little more forced. “G-A-S-T-E-R?”

“yeah, that’s it.” He started tapping his fingers against the counter, letting the bones click sharply against the glass. Bill’s eye twitched just barely noticeably. He had always had a thing about sounds. “do y’think someone could check the back? maybe the computer is wrong.”

Bill hesitated for a moment, but nodded. “Of… of course. Just a moment.” His hand went up to the button on his earpiece. You heard the light static buzz in your own earpiece as he spoke directly to you and the other employees. “Could an associate that’s free check the back for any books written by a W.D Gaster?”

“he writes a lot of science, but for you humans, it’d probably be under new age stuff. talk about souls and the like.” Great, now you actually wanted someone to find a book by this mystery author, despite the fact that you were starting to believe W.D Gaster didn’t actually exist. Sans was hardcore fucking with Bill.

 

However. This is the moment when you learned an important lesson for the upteenth time: you ought to pay more attention to what you’re doing. While you were watching Sans, your precarious tower of mugs had started to lean. You gasped as they all started to fall. Sans looked over sharply at your gasp as you tried to catch them and then-

“woah!” You blinked as the cups around you were covered in a cool blue sheen. They… They froze, mid-fall, around you. You looked at them in confusion and amazement for a moment before it clicked. You looked at Sans and beamed.

He grinned back at you, one eye void of light, the other shining that same blue. The blue glow around him wasn’t as strong as it was that day at the park, but you could just make it out around him. Now that you were getting a closer look, the light in his eye didn’t look nearly as frightening as it had before - it was actually almost comforting. 

Evidently, not for Bill. He paled as soon as he saw what Sans was doing - which was just setting back up most of the mugs while others drifted carefully and slowly to the floor. He watched in sheer awe and worry as Sans set up the mugs. “you alright there, bud?”

You sighed in relief, nodding. “Yeah, thanks Sans…” You glanced at Bill. He was still too much in shock to tell you off for being too casual with the customers. Good. You smiled at Sans and started picking up the mugs. “I’ll just move some of these to other displays. There’s no more room up here.”

Sans nodded. “you oughta be more careful, pal.”

“I’ll be fine, Sans.” You smiled at him and took the mugs over to nearby displays. Cat ones on the cat display… You guessed you could put the bad pun mugs near the bad pun magnets. Why were there so many bad puns in the world? By the time you got back to register, you already heard the buzz over the coms from Nick in the back: no W.D Gaster anywhere that they could find. 

But Sans was still up front with Bill, who was looking more and more uncomfortable. “what do y’mean, ‘you don’t know’?”

“As we have never had any of his novels in our store, I don’t believe we’ll receive any on our monthly shipment. As such, the only other way we would have any books by him would be if someone sold them to us.” His customer service voice seemed to be wearing thinner by the second. Good - you were enjoying seeing Bill get a taste of register life. 

“that’s a shame,” Sans said with a sigh. “do you think you could at least take me to where the fluffy bunny books are? m’brother was lookin’ for those.”

Bill looked relieved that it was a simple job now - say what you will, but you knew Bill did have an acute sense of where every book in the store was. “That’ll just be in aisle 2B with our middle readers. I can show you where they are.”

You cleared your throat. “Bill? We also got some in on the carts in the back. If you wanted to-”

“Oh, thanks, Hon.” You couldn’t help but notice how Sans’s skull shifted slightly, almost as though he would be scrunching up his nose in disgust. If he had one. It was a bit of an odd look on a skeleton. You smiled, though - nice to see he hated that as much as you did. “If you’ll come with me, sir.”

You watched as Bill led Sans towards the buyback area. Sans winked at you as he left. You couldn’t help but smile.

 

… You really had it bad for this skeleton. The feeling of magic from him levitating those cups - _which was so fucking cool_ , your brain repeatedly told you - wasn’t helping the feeling. Did everyone get horny from the touch of magic, or was that just your messed up libido? God, you hoped it wasn’t just you. That would be hard to explain.

Not that you were going to be telling anyone that little secret. Ever. Nope. No way. Too embarrassing. Besides - you could imagine what would happen if Tessa (or, god forbid, Alphys, the dirty shipper) heard about it. You weren’t dealing with that mess.

You worked more on the register merchandise as you kept an eye out for Sans. You checked out a few more customers, none of which were as bad as that crabby woman from earlier. You glanced at the clock - 3 o’clock already. You had no idea how the time had gone by so fast! You only had two more hours of hell to get through. Then you could go home and sleep. You really hated morning shifts. Working 9 to 5 was miserable. Still, you would be free soon.

It was around 3:30 that Sans and Paps finally made their way back to the front - with Bill lagging behind, looking a little haggard. He still had that smile on his face, but you could also see that familiar rage behind his eyes. Rage, and exhaustion. Oh, what did Sans do to him?

You smiled a bit sympathetically at Bill as Papyrus came up to your register, putting down numerous discount Fluffy Bunny books, as well as a copy of the Rainbow Fish. Bill cleared his throat and said your name as you started to scan them in. “Discount the purchase with an educators discount, if you could?”

Educators discount? You raised a brow at Bill and then at Sans. The latter just shrugged, smiling wide. “we donate the books to tori.” Oh. Teacher’s discount then. They went to Toriel. Hmm… Letting Sans use the discount for these was a clear breach in policy, but you weren’t about to disobey your manager. You smiled and made sure to apply the discount.

Papyrus watched in awe as the total came up. “WOWWIE!” He looked at Sans with a big smile. “SANS, IT IS $9.80 FOR ALL OF THESE WONDERFUL BOOKS! THAT COSTS MUCH LESS THAN IT DOES AT THE OTHER BOOK STORE!”

Sans smiled warmly at his brother, then smirked a bit, glancing at the drinks. “got any diet water?”

You bit your lip as Bill tightened his hands into fists under the counter. “... No, I’m afraid not, Sir.”

“shame.” He pulled a ten out of his wallet, putting it on the counter. You wanted desperately to pay for him again, but with both Bill and Papyrus here… Besides. As much as you wanted to be kind and do that each time, you couldn’t lie to yourself - you didn’t have the money for that. You took the cash and made his change, handing him back the twenty cents. He seemed to appreciate that you didn’t pay this time around.

Papyrus picked up his books with a big smile. “GOODIE! I WILL READ ALL OF THESE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. THANK YOU, HUMAN!”

“My pleasure, Paps.” You smiled and then you remembered. “Oh! Right, yeah, at the bottom of your receipt is a survey. If you fill that out online, you can get a $5 dollar discount next time.” You made sure to circle the survey and hand the receipt to Sans, seeing as Paps’s hands were a bit full. 

Sans beamed at the survey. “i’ll be sure t’mention you both,” he said, directed to you and Bill. He nodded to Papyrus. “let’s get goin’, bro.” 

“OKAY, SANS! GOODBYE, HUMANS!” 

“nice t’meet you, bill. nice to see you again, ‘sweetie’.” The way he said it, you could hear the sheer irony and hatred in his voice for the name.

… But you have to admit, your heart skipped a beat when he called you that.

 

As they walked out, Papyrus dropped one of his books. You ran over and grabbed it quickly, holding it up for him. He shifted the books in his hand and gave you a big hug. You laughed a bit - yeah, Papyrus hugs were something you would have to be okay with. He was a hugger. Papyrus hugs didn’t make you feel as uncomfortable as most hugs, at least.

The brothers both walked out, and you watched as your manager deflated. Oh gosh, you actually felt a little bad for him. “You alright, Bill?”

He smiled at you, running a hand through his perfect hair to straighten it back to perfection. “Oh, of course. Just exhausted. I’m always happy to help a customer, though!” You could hear the lie in his voice. Sans really wore the poor guy out. Bill glanced at his watch and nodded. “I think it’s about time we got you off register, Hon.”

You bit the inside of your cheek. You felt bad about what Sans had done, and you were fairly certain he only did it because of the sheer distaste for Bill’s affectionate names. “Um, Bill? Do you think you could stop calling me that?” Bill looked at you and blinked, not comprehending. “Hon and Sweetie? It… just makes me feel a little uncomfortable.”

“Oh!” He looked surprised. “Oh, I didn’t know. I’ll try to stop that, swe- er.” He smiled a bit shyly. “Sorry.”

You blinked. That was the first time you had ever heard Bill apologize. In fact, he’d been acting a little odd all day, you realized - run down, but only somewhat. You glanced at the clock - 3:40. He wanted to pull your till… “Sales are low, I take it?”

Judging from his face, you guessed right. “How would you like to go home an hour early,” he asked with a smile. He was starting to get back into the swing of things already, it looked like.

You smiled back. “I’d love to.”

He pulled your till from your register as a girl you remembered being named Sam came up to cover registers for the night. As you followed him to the back, you thought about how he had been acting. You were glad to show him some mercy from Sans’s small dickery. He wouldn’t call you the monikers again, and hopefully Sans wouldn’t feel the need to punish him as much anymore.

You just wondered where that little surge of bravery came from to finally tell Bill that he was making you uncomfortable. Maybe it was just the guilt. You counted down you till in the back and made sure to wish Bill a better day. He seemed to appreciate it.

You clocked out and boom. You were free for the day. You felt a bit warmer and happier, walking out into the sunshine.

You guessed seeing Papyrus was exactly the pick-me-up you needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GOODNESS GRACIOUS, this chapter took awhile to get out. So much foreshadowing. Ugh. But now that this is done, I can work on WKYH. I feel like I'm starting to get back into the swing of things - it helps that I'm ridiculously sick today. Sick = good time to write. 
> 
> If you wanna chat or have questions, you can reach me in the comments, or, if you wanna have a cool place to hang out, you can check out my [super awesome totally official looking Tumblr](https://misssugarpinkshome.tumblr.com/). Or not. It's up to you.


	10. In Which You Remember One Of Your Best Friends Exists

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh god how did you forget?

“Honestly, I can’t apologize enough.”

“Seriously,” he laughed, washing his hands. He’d just picked up a really nasty sticky something from behind the counter. “It’s fine!”

“I just completely blanked! Like completely!”

“I expected as much!” He rolled his eyes, sitting and wincing as he did. He was still in a cast. “You’re kinda ditzy sometimes.” 

“Geoff, seriously, don’t make me feel worse.” You heave a heavy sigh as you plop down in front of him. You were both sitting in the breakroom, Geoff to talk to Bill about everything and you because you were about to go home for the day. “I didn’t even know you were in the store, for pete’s sake!”

“Seriously,” he repeated, smiling warmly. He always smiled warmly. “I don’t blame you. You know me, I sneak in every day and sneak out every night. I’m like a little spy.”

“Oh, hush, stop trying to make me feel better.”

“You won’t want me to make you feel worse, but you don’t want me to make you feel better. You don’t leave me many options.”

You blinked and shook your head with a smile. God dammit, he was good at making you feel better. “It’s just, I called the hospital and the water main broke-”

“Oh my god, there were people outside hammering and drilling the entire day, it was hellish,” he quickly says, shaking his head. “Though it provided a nice distraction from hospital food.”

“There’s that at least.” You smiled sympathetically. “But then I got tied up with work, and then I made a bunch of new friends and it just. I completely blanked,” you repeated helplessly.

“I already forgave you. You’re good.” He smiled at you, running a hand through his hair. “I know you care, you always do. You’re fine, promise.” He paused. “Am I reassuring you too much? Cause like I can stop if it’s overkill-”

“No, no, Geoff, you’re fine.” You grin at him. God, he’s ridiculous. “No anxiety. I needed the reassurance.”

He smiled softly. “Good. Glad I gave you that then.” He repositioned himself and groaned in pain. “Oh jesus, my leg…” 

“Yikes. How bad is it? Are you supposed to be here?”

“Eeeeeeeeeh?”

Your eyes narrowed. “Geoffrey…” 

“Yikes, no nickname. I’m in trooouble.” You struggled to keep your face straight and serious. It took a monumental effort. “Aw I really am in trouble.” He sighed. “Seriously, it’ll be fine. I technically shouldn’t be out of the hospital-”

“Geoff!”

“Buuut,” he continued, “the doctor let me go because he thinks I’m doing well enough to do at home care. I’m in the cast for another few weeks. Until about November 14th.” He sighed and shrugged at your reaction. “I broke it myself, now my body’s gotta fix it. That takes time.”

“Geoff, what did you even do?”

He grimaced. “I, uh… Fell off my Mom’s roof. I was trying to clear out the gutter for her.”

“Oh my god.”

“I’m lucky! I could’ve broken more! I got enormously lucky and didn’t even need surgery. They kept me in the hospital for a few days just to make sure I didn’t.”

You shook your head. Only Geoff could end up falling off of a roof and ending up with only a broken leg. People could die from that sort of thing normally. You guessed he was built tougher than normal though. “Well… I’m glad it didn’t end up worse than it did. That also explains why you look a little beat up, huh?”

He shrugged, sighing. He did have a few bruises, which now made a lot more sense if he had fallen off of a roof. “Well, the ground and I had a fight, and the ground hit back. I think it won.”

“I dunno, you got outta there with your life,” you said with a grin. “I’d say it was a tie.”

“It got some good hits on me though,” he said, shifting his foot and wincing again. “Jesus.”

“Take it easy, Geoff. You’ve got a ride home?”

“Yeah, my friend Sam’s driving me home. She drove me here, actually, she had to go to the pet store anyways.” He smiled. “She’s great. We kicked it off a long time ago, I babysit for her.”

You nodded. Geoff always seemed to have his life set - connections, jobs. You kinda wished you were as put together as him, but at the same time, you supposed hard work paid off! “That’s good. I would hate for you to have to wait for a drive back. I would do it myself if I had a car.”

“Yikes, still saving?” He frowned softly at your nod. “Jesus, I don’t know how you live on the salary here. You still only have the one job?”

“Hey, my parents helped out a lot.” Shit maybe you should call them soon and figure out Christmas and Thanksgiving. Were you going home or not? Ugh whatever not a question for right now. “They paid for my first three months of rent, as a gift for my birthday. That gave me enough time to get some savings built up.”

“They coulda got you a car for your birthday instead,” Geoff said with a raised brow. 

“Hey, I’m grateful nonetheless.” You shrugged. They probably had their reasons for not doing that; you weren’t going to judge them unless you knew the full story of their financials. You got more than most kids got anyways.

Geoff stared at you, meeting your eyes. You grinned and glanced away after a second. God, he was crazy - you almost never looked people in the eyes. It was weird. He shook his head softly with a frown which quickly turned into a smile as Bill turned the corner. “Bill! Fancy seeing you here.”

Bill seemed just as surprised to see him, but only briefly; they’d clearly scheduled to meet together today. He smiled at you both. You noticed that he didn’t look as perfect today. Smile not as wide and darker circles under his eyes. Probably just tired. “Nice to see you Geoff. Sw-” He winced and bit the inside of his cheek. “Sorry. What’re you still doing here? I thought your shift was over.”

He was still trying, at least. Habits are hard to break. “I stayed to chat with Geoff. I’ll go ahead and get outta you boys’ hair.” You stood to pick up your purse.

Geoff stood up too, grabbing his crutch. “Hey, wait, you gonna walk home? If you wait till I’m done, Sam and I could drive you.”

You hesitated. A drive wouldn’t be bad… But still, you sort of really wanted to get outside. A walk would do you some good. “I’ll be fine. I wanna stretch my legs anyways.” 

“You sure?”

“Geoff, it’s midday. It’s not like someone’s going to try and steal my purse. It’s a nice day out anyway.”

“Midday would be noon. It’s 4.”

“Geoff, lights are still out. Sun isn’t set. I’ll be fine.”

He nodded, smiling begrudgingly. “Alright, alright, I’ll calm my fears. Text when you get home though, alright? Stay safe.” 

“And don’t forget you work tomorrow!” Bill added quickly. “Until midnight, okay?”

“I won’t forget,” you said, biting the immediate response that you didn’t tend to forget when you worked and could schedule your time wisely. 

“Oh, and could you remind Tessa? Knowing her, she’ll forget.” He sighed, shaking his head and glancing at Geoff (who was looking a little uncomfortable) knowingly. “She’s a mess.”

 

Normally, you wouldn’t risk this. You’re not sure what gets into you. But god, you find him so annoying sometime, and for some reason, today, you weren’t going to stand for him bashing Tessa for no reason.

“Bill. Check yourself, okay?”

Bill blinked, looking as though someone just punched the air in front of his face. 

You took a deep breath, looking at him seriously. “Tessa is a seriously dedicated worker. I was the one to convince her to work here because I saw something in her. Something that I knew would help her get through the mess she was in at the time. And guess what? She did. She works hard, she’s a good friend, and most of all, she manages to deal with you constantly beating her down.”

“Sweetie-”

“Nope. I’m just telling it like it is.” You took another deep breath. Fuck fuck fuck what the fuck were you doing?!?! But god. God you couldn’t stand him beating her down. “Look just… If you wanna talk shit about Tessa, tell it to your boyfriend? Don’t say it in the breakroom around other workers and put them in this position.”

Bill looked surprised and a little sheepish as he glanced at Geoff. Geoff had a small smile on his face as he looked at you and glanced back at Geoff. Geoff nodded, smiling wider. “She has a point, Bill. It… does make us really uncomfortable to hear you badmouth our fellow workers. Especially one we all happen to like.”

“If you have a complaint about a worker,” you said, harnessing that last bit of bravery you seemed to suddenly have, “then you should bring it up with the district manager, Bill. Go to… whatever form of HR we have. I don’t even know. Don’t bring it up to her friends, especially when I’m off the clock. I care about those friends, and I don’t think you’re justified in beating her down as much as you do.”

“I… didn’t realize you felt so strongly,” he said a bit meekly.

“I didn’t realize I had the ability to let it all out,” you said with a shrug, smiling back sympathetically. “Don’t take it personally, Bill. I just… really care about Tessa and know how much pressure she has from you. And I care more about her than how this talk will reflect on my job.” You smiled brightly at them both. “Have a good day, and a nice talk.”

Without another word you practically ran out before you got fired.

 

The walk home was spent in joyful disbelief combined with sheer horror. “Holy fuck I just did that,” you said to yourself more than once. You barely noticed where you were walking the entire time back - in your head, you were still standing in the break room with sunglasses and Bill on the floor crying while Geoff cheered you on.

……. You had a very active imagination apparently.

But on the other hand, you were also almost _certainly_ fired. Oh definitely. Ten thousand percent you were fired after that stunt. Oh god you felt weak - what were you doing to do? You guessed when you got home you would have to start a job search? 

God you had been working there for awhile now. It was home to you. You had memorized the sections of books, knew where to find the vampire teen romance that floated around the store at any given moment. That place was so familiar to you, and now you were definitely going to be forced to leave because for once in your life you couldn’t keep your mouth shut _why couldn’t you have kept your mouth shut oh my god?????_

Still. You were… SO proud of yourself right now. You had just defended your friend! Where did those balls come from?! Holy fuck!!! 

You couldn’t tell whether you wanted to beam or not after that. You wanted to send a text to Tessa, but you knew better. She had a shift opposite you today, meaning she wouldn’t text back for another 8 hours. Maybe 4 if she got service during her break, but you doubted it. 

Instead, you texted one of the only other friends whose number you had (who the fuck was Katherine and why did you have her contact? Did you _know_ a Katherine?). You hoped Sans wouldn’t mind you texting him, right? You sure hoped.

 

_Me: So I told off my boss at work today for something super shitty that he does constantly, and I think I might get fired, but at the same time, I’m so proud of myself for standing up to him?_

You paused and sent a second text.

 

_Me: I probably won’t be fired._

 

You didn’t have to wait long. He texted back right around the time that you were forcing your door open with your foot.

 

_Sans: whoa, what exactly happened?_  
_Sans: you sure you’re not gonna lose your job?_

 

You shared what happened, petting Allie as you walked in. You used direct quotes and everything in your messages. You tried to put everything as accurately as it was said before. You put your bag down and shed your pants, slipping on sweats instead. Oh that was glorious. 

You were popping popcorn when the next message came in. 

 

_Sans: wow_  
_Sans: whoever told you to get all fired up like that probably didn’t mean it that literally_

 

You scoffed softly, a small grin coming to your face. Leave it to Sans to joke about this. You pulled your popcorn out of the microwave before it burnt. You poured some parmesan on it with one hand while responding.

 

_Me: I mean, no one told me to do that. I just. Ended up doing it!_

_Sans: you’ve got balls i’ll give you that much_  
_Sans: i’m glad you said something to him though_  
_Sans: didn't like him much_

_Me: Yeah, I noticed the other day. You shook him up pretty well._

_Sans: well i mean i didn't like him calling you that_  
_Sans: you didn't seem to like it at least_

 

You smiled softly at that. He had noticed? “He noticed,” you said, staring at Allie, beaming a little. 

“Merow.”

“Yeah!” You snapped your fingers a little and patted your lap in efforts of getting her to sit on you. You wanted her there. She watched you curiously. You patted again. No movement. “Okay, fine, stay on the floor.”

You turned to grab your phone again when she jumped up on your lap. You jolted a little in your seat at the sudden movement before sighing and petting her. Seemed she changed her mind. 

You checked your phone again. 

 

_Sans: just don't be cagey if stuff goes down okay?_  
_Sans: like if you get fired_  
_Sans: don't not tell us_  
_Sans: you're our friend and we care about you so like let us know_

_Me: Oh gosh. Thanks. I’m sure it’ll be fine, Bill’s never gonna fire me, especially not for that. He's got a good sense of when to back down_  
_Me: Just. Not a great sense of where the line is to stop preemptively_

_Sans: point still stands_  
_Sans: you're no animal, so stay outta cages buddy_

 

Your smile grew. Allie purred a little louder to get your attention - you had stopped petting her and this was a tragedy. You leaned down to kiss her head and kept petting while chatting with Sans. Before you knew it, an entire hour passed. An hour and a half. Two. Your stomach brought you out of your daze by grumbling.

 

_Me: Oh my gosh it’s late_  
_Me: Sorry, didn’t mean to keep you so long_

_Sans: oh_  
_Sans: nah you’re good_  
_Sans: i like talking to you_

_Me: I like talking to you too! I just need to make dinner at some point._

_Sans: yeah paps’’ll have dinner ready soon_  
_Sans: you gonna be good alone tonight?_

_Me: Oh yeah definitely. I’m not alone, I’ve got Allie._

_Sans: nice_  
_Sans: have a good night bud_

_Me: You too Sans! :)_

 

You sighed softly, putting down your phone. You felt a little sad about ending the conversation; it had been awhile since you’d had a nice long conversation with someone other than Tessa. Sans was just really easy to talk to. His casual texting helped calm your normal phone anxiety.

Speaking of, how did he get his phone to not autocorrect his typing to capitalize it? Was that something he specifically turned off? That sounded like him. Only Sans would go out of his way to be lazy.

You went to the kitchen, looking through the pantries and fridge. What should you eat… 

Yep. Microwave meals.

You grabbed some frozen pasta dinner thing and put it out to thaw a tiny bit before putting it into your shitty, shitty microwave. You hoped it would actually turn on this time. It had a habit of not working if you had recently opened the fridge - and you had no idea why that was. Allie meowed again at you, standing next to her food bowl. You fed her, frowning. You were getting low on food. Another trip to the pet store…

You sighed softly. “You’re gonna get fat, kitty.”

“Merow.”

“Yes, you!” You kneeled down to scritch her cheeks while she started to eat. “You’re gonna eat me out of house and home and end up with nothing to eat.” Your cat ignored your lament, digging into her wet food. Ugh. The smell drove you back. Ew.

You heated up your pasta and grabbed your book. You were much further now. As you read about the hunt for the magical orb and the long lost descendant of a long dead king, you couldn’t help but think back to the way magic works in your world. For one thing, you had to reorient yourself - magic. Magic in _your_ world. Who knew!

Magic and Will. That’s a lot like the book, honestly - the will and the word. But the idea that in your world, _everyone_ could be magic…

You looked at Allie. Did she have magic?

She yawned and started licking her unmentionables.

…….. Probably not.

But you. What if you had magic? No, you _did_ have magic, Sans had proven that to you! You had magic, because you had a soul. Hopefully? Did you have a soul? He had said you did-

Oh my god had he ever looked at your soul? How would you even know? Had people been peeping at your soul? Sans mentioned that it was kind of personal, so maybe not. So maybe he had just been saying you only theoretically have a soul?

Why was this tearing you apart inside? Was it because your mother is ginger?

Ugh.

You shook your head, glancing away from your cat who insisted on bathing at this moment to your half-uneaten, half-frozen pasta. You looked at your hands, dry and calloused from too many papercuts. “... Yeah. I have a soul. Only someone with a soul would be able to put up with life.”

You felt a little more relieved after coming to your conclusion. You’re not even sure why. You just had to be sure that there was something about you - something normal, or like. Universal. You were just the same as anyone else, and that made you happier than most people would be. Actually, most people would probably think you were weird for that.

You just weren’t most people you guessed. 

… Which was literally the exact opposite of what you had just thought.

You sighed. “Maybe I should just go ahead to bed. I’m clearly exhausted and confused.” You hurriedly ate the rest of your food (ew) and washed out the container to use later. Free plates! You cleaned up a little - the general area was still disgusting but at least you picked up some discarded pants from the living room - and then went to your bathroom to get ready for bed.

As you got there, you noticed you looked a little fuller in color. You frowned and poked your cheeks. “Oh jesus. I really hope I’m not getting sick. Do you gain color in your cheeks if you get sick?” You grabbed your phone and did a fast google search. 

……… Apparently you either had cancer, or you were pregnant.

You sighed and shook your head. “Okay. It’ll go away soon. Stupid internet diagnoses. Might as well have asked buzzfeed…” You looked back in the mirror. “I mean, I don’t look too bad I guess.” Actually, you looked a little better than normal. Skin brighter, cheeks more red, eyes shinier. “Weird.”

You got ready, shaking your head. You would have to bring it up next time you went to the doctor if it started to be a… problem? Ah yes. Beauty as a problem. You were probably just paranoid; it was probably just because you had gotten some sun today.

You laid down and read for another hour or so before plugging in your phone and going to bed. You would need rest before closing tomorrow. As you started to doze off, you saw your phone light up with a text. You checked it real fast.

 

_Geoff: Thanks for standing up for Tessa today by the way. I hated the way Bill talked about her but I guess I didn’t really feel up to rocking the boat. You’ve got guts, kid._

 

You blinked and shot him back a text. 

 

_Me: Yeah! Yeah I care about her a lot. Bill can be a huge duck_  
_Me: Duck_  
_Me: Dick_

_Geoff: Quack?_

_Me: Shut up I’m tired_

_Geoff: Oh god it’s like midnight_  
_Geoff: Sorry if I woke you_

_Me: Was just going to bed. You good? Got home safe and everything?_

_Geoff: Yeah. Sam got me home._  
_Geoff: Mind if I keep you up a few more minutes to ask you something?_

 

You took a deep breath and sat up again, rubbing your eyes. You were pretty tired but Geoff rarely texted you out of the blue. Might as well be a good friend, especially if this question was important.

 

_Me: Nah shoot. I’m wide awake._

_Geoff: Have you noticed anything weird with Bill lately?_

_Me: Huh? I mean he looked like he forgot his hair gel today but not really._

_Geoff: I wasn’t sure_  
_Geoff: He just. Seemed really weird today during our talk._  
_Geoff: And I noticed like_  
_Geoff: A lot of used up tissues in the trash can_  
_Geoff: So I think someone might have been in there crying_  
_Geoff: And I’m wondering if it was him or not but like that’s probably assuming a lot_

_Me: It is October. Bill gets fall allergies?_  
_Me: I’ll keep an eye out. I hope he’s doing okay._

_Geoff: Even if he’s a duck?_  
_Geoff: Intentional typo_

_Me: Yeah yeah I mess up once_  
_Me: Even if he is a dick_  
_Me: I still hope he’s doing alright_

 

You saw Geoff type something but delete it. You frowned. What was he gonna say?

 

_Geoff: Maybe just keep an eye on him. I do really care about him, he hired me when I was in a bad place in my life_  
_Geoff: Let me know if he seems to get worse?_

_Me: Sure thing._

_Geoff: Sweet. I’ll let you go now, sorry again for bothering you so late at night._

_Me: You’re good Geoff. Sleep well!_

 

You didn’t stay awake long enough to see his response. Out went the lights, literally and figuratively, and you passed out on your bed to dream-land.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live, bitch
> 
> But no, seriously, here's (another) apology for not getting stuff out regularly. College really took a bite out of me, as well as a relationship I am now in which takes up more of my time. But I'm starting to get back into the groove with writing, so hopefully that'll mean more updates for everyone!
> 
> Want more info on if your favorite fic author is actually alive, or just wanna see occasional reblogs of writing tips? Why not swing over to [My Very Official Writing Tumblr](https://misssugarpinkshome.tumblr.com/) where you can do things such as send fan stuff or ask me (or any of my characters) questions? Or not. It's always up to you!


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